DA welcomes court decision to deny Zuma a stay of prosecution

11 October 2019

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decision taken by the Pietermaritzburg Division of the KwaZulu-Natal High Court to deny former President Jacob Zuma’s application for a permanent stay of prosecution. Mr. Zuma’s application was dismissed with costs.

The DA believes that Mr. Zuma has a case to answer. We have been at the forefront of the fight to make sure that he is not allowed to escape accountability, despite his best attempts to interfere with the workings of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

In 2009, after the dismissal of our initial application to overturn the decision of then National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Mokotedi Mpshe, to drop the charges against Mr. Zuma, we embarked on lengthy legal processes to have the so-called “spy tapes” released. Mpshe’s decision was based on these “spy tapes” and we believed it essential for transparency and justice that these recordings be made available for scrutiny.

The NPA was ordered, in 2011, to provide the DA with a full record of Mpshe’s decision, inclusive of the complete “spy tapes.” They failed to do so, citing objections lodged by Mr. Zuma’s legal team, but was finally forced to hand the tapes over in 2014. After that, the DA entered into further legal processes to have Mpshe’s decision declared irrational. This battle was also finally won in late 2017, when the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld a ruling of the High Court overturning Mpshe’s decision to drop charges.

We are encouraged by the ruling of the court to believe that Zuma will eventually have to face his day in court. The arc of the moral universe is often said to be long, but ultimately bending toward justice. The DA will not rest until justice has been done.

Issued by Glynnis Breytenbach, DA Shadow Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, 11 October 2019