REMARKS BY ANC PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA AFTER THE FORMAL WITHDRAWAL OF CHARGES BY THE DURBAN HIGH COURT

Today the Durban High Court withdrew the indictment against me following the decision of the National Prosecuting Authority not to prosecute.

This marks the end of a long and painful period. The investigation has brought untold pressure on the entire Zuma family especially my children and relatives.

We have been sustained throughout this by the unwavering support of comrades, friends and scores of well wishers nationally and internationally.

We thank all of them for believing in my innocence, my assertions of a political conspiracy and of being a victim of a systematic abuse of power.

I do not regard myself as being above the law and I believe that no public representative should be beyond scrutiny. That is why throughout the eight-year period, I did not use my position to interfere with the due process of the law.

I have always been ready to co-operate with the NPA and have presented myself in courts whenever needed.

My quarrel with the NPA was on the methods and the motives of the investigation. The probe was supported by a vicious media campaign designed to find me guilty in the court of public opinion.

In addition to routine media leaks, the infamous off the record briefing by the then National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka contravened the fundamental  principle that individuals are innocent until or unless found guilty.

It is in this briefing where he showed his real motives and said he wants to try me in the court of public opinion and was asking the editors present to help him. This was the beginning of the abuse of power.

The actions of the NPA, which fuelled my view that there was more to the investigation than pure legal matters included the following amongst others:

a. The decision by Bulelani Ngcuka not to prosecute in 2003 saying the case was not winnable in court, but choosing to announce this publicly in order to leave a cloud of guilt, further confirmed what he had said in the off the record briefing. There was a clear agenda so that I should remain guilty forever.

There never was a case against me. We have now discovered that Ngcuka continued to manipulate and abuse the investigation process long after he resigned as head of the NPA. The agenda was clearly to improve the chances of his preferred candidate for leadership of the ANC, assisted by the head of the Directorate of Special Operations, Leonard McCarthy.

b. The subsequent decisions to prosecute by Vusi Pikoli and Mokotedi Mpshe. No reasons have ever been given as to why the decision of Ngcuka was reversed.

We are pleased that it is now finally clear why these decisions were taken. The reasons were political and manipulative.

c. I was alarmed by the failure by the then Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and that of the Head of the NPA to co-operate with the Public Protector in his investigations arising out of my complaint in 2003, that my rights had been violated by the NPA.

My assertion was confirmed by the Public Protector, but his report was subjected to ridicule by Bulelani Ngcuka and Penuell Maduna, and its recommendations were never acted upon.
Nobody defended the Public Protector. We will need to look into how we avoid this in future, as our Chapter 9 Constitutional institutions cannot be effective if they are not protected from abuse.

We were yet again shocked by the initiation and involvement of the NPA in the procurement of the Browse Mole document.

The document accuses me of a conspiracy which was a threat to "the sovereignty and integrity of the South African State".

It also made very serious unfounded allegations about the Angolan President His Excellency Eduardo Dos Santos and Libyan leader His Excellency Muammar Qaddafi.

We were also suspicious of the excessive use of monetary resources to drive the investigation both locally and abroad. Also alarming was the political nature of the meetings held by the NPA to discuss the ANC's resolutions taken at its policy conference regarding its future and initiatives to counter such.

We were also startled by the fact that in 2005, the NPA instituted charges first, and then later raided my properties, former offices and those of my lawyers, an indication that they charged first and looked for evidence later. This was a sign of desperation and I had to seek relief from the courts to protect my rights.

Most importantly, we were concerned about the failure of Government to respond decisively to a series of recommendations by Parliament. We have always said that we believe our democratic institutions including Parliament are strong and sound, we still believe this to be the case.

However, something clearly needs to be done to make them more effective in their oversight role, to correct abuses and to protect human rights as enshrined in the Constitution.

Also, we need to ensure that none of the institutions we create become so powerful that neither Parliament, the Executive nor the Judiciary can address their excesses and abuse of power and protect the public.

The issue of the Browse Mole report was a classic case of dirty tricks by the DSO.

Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence concluded that the Scorpions were involved in several illegal activities including intelligence gathering without a legal mandate.

The Committee made several recommendations which should have made  analysts, media and monitoring groups realise that something was seriously wrong at the NPA.

These included amongst others the following:

That the executive authority take appropriate action against the head of the DSO, Mr McCarthy and all the officials who were involved in the production of the Browse Mole Report;

That Government must conduct a comprehensive review of the DSO, giving urgent attention to the manner in which the DSO is currently operating.

All said and done, let me emphasise that my conscience is clear. I have not committed any crime against the State or the people of South Africa.

I had no difficulty with responding to the charges as I knew they were baseless. I sought legal remedies in the courts simply because I felt my rights were being violated for reasons that appeared very suspicious. And I have clearly been vindicated.

WAY FORWARD

The conclusion of this divisive and painful episode provides lessons for us in many ways. The parliamentary oversight role needs to be strengthened. When Parliament or any of our Chapter 9 institutions recommend certain actions to protect individuals whose rights are being violated, it is a travesty of justice for that to be totally ignored by the Executive.

In the task we have set ourselves to transform our criminal justice system; we have to promote and reinforce the independence of our law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.

We are noticing a worrying new trend of political parties that want to interfere with the work of our law enforcement agencies in a desperate bid to win votes for the coming election. They are playing a mischievous game. The NPA needs to be allowed a period of healing and refocusing.

We must clearly strive for a public service in which officials serve the people and not individuals with ulterior motives no matter how powerful they are.

The NPA decision and reasons given also reaffirmed portions of the Nicholson judgement without any shadow of doubt. The NPA itself admitted that there was manipulation and abuse of power

It must be emphasised that this debacle has confirmed that our democracy is strong and our people are very mature politically.

Over an eight-year period, our country proved that disagreements can be managed legally and politically and this matter did not spark off violence despite generating intense emotions. There can be no doubt that peace and stability are a certainty at all times in our country, even when we have intense political disagreements.

We also need to develop vigilance and inculcate a culture of promoting adherence to human rights regardless of who the victim is. We have found that some media institutions and certain think tanks became willing and active participants in the conspiracy, simply because they disliked the individual being targeted.

That is regrettable as the fourth estate should actually assist us to expose abuses of power. Our country has gone through a very painful and divisive period, and it is a time for healing and unity.

I would not wish for any South African to go through what I went through over the last eight years. Retribution will not take us anywhere. Now is the time for us to focus on improving people's lives.

We want to put this episode behind us and focus on our priorities; education, health, rural development, the fight against crime and creating decent jobs despite the global economic meltdown.

Most importantly, all citizens must remain vigilant against any abuse of power. We can prevent it if we work together.

Let me take this opportunity to thank the ANC and the Alliance, my legal team for their sterling work, religious and traditional leaders and ordinary South Africans who supported me throughout this ordeal. They all demonstrated that they were and are defenders and guarantors of our democracy.

They have been vindicated by the NPA statement that:"In the light of the above, I have come to the difficult conclusion that it is neither possible nor desirable for the NPA to continue with the prosecution of Mr Zuma''.

I thank you

Statement issued by the African National Congress, April 7 2009

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