ActionSA outraged by NPA's sudden about-turn in withdrawing corruption charges against Zizi Kodwa
1 November 2024
ActionSA expresses outrage following the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)’s abrupt decision to withdraw the corruption charges against Former Minister and ANC MP, Zizi Kodwa, who was accused of accepting a R1.7 million bribe in exchange for influencing the awarding of lucrative government contracts.
ActionSA will formally write to the National Director of Public Prosecution, Advocate Shamila Batohi, to review this decision and request a record of the decision that led to this sudden reversal, especially given the NPA's earlier utterances in late July expressing confidence in a guilty verdict for the charges.
This sudden about-turn raises obvious questions about what could have driven the NPA to withdraw the charges, which ActionSA believes reflects growing concerns about either a lack of prosecutorial diligence or, more troublingly, the possibility of deliberate mishandling in cases involving high-profile individuals.
Importantly, one would ordinarily expect that before deciding to prosecute a case of this nature, particularly given the profile of the accused, the NPA, whose record has been subject to warranted scrutiny, would ensure thorough preparation before even contemplating criminal charges. This then begs the question of what exactly informed this outrageous decision, which they are vaguely excusing as 'due to new developments'.