South Africa President Jacob Zuma. PHOTO | FILE
By Reuters
In Summary
South African President Jacob Zuma failed on Friday in his
appeal against a court ruling that corruption charges against him be
reinstated, another setback for the leader who has been facing calls for
his resignation.
The ruling puts further pressure on Mr Zuma after a damning
constitutional court judgment against him in March, and comes six weeks
before local elections at which the ruling African National Congress
faces a strong challenge from opponents seeking to capitalise on what
they see as his missteps.
The rand cheered the ruling by the High Court in Pretoria,
paring some losses after it fell more than 8 per cent to the dollar in
the wake of Britain's shock referendum vote to leave the European Union.
The court said the President and National Director of Public
Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams, who had appealed the earlier ruling
alongside the president, had no grounds to do so.
"The matter is of course important for Mr Zuma. However if the
appeal does not have reasonable prospects for success, leave to appeal
should not be granted," Judge Aubrey Ledwaba said.
It was not immediately clear if Zuma would appeal Friday's
ruling, but legal analysts said both he and the National Prosecuting
Authority (NPA) could still lodge a petition to the Supreme Court of
Appeal.
Judge Ledwaba had in April ordered a review of a 2009 decision
by the NPA to set aside hundreds of charges against Zuma, which he
described in his ruling as "irrational". That decision by the NPA
allowed Zuma to run for president the same month.
Then-national prosecutor Mokotedi Mpshe's decision was based on
phone intercepts presented by Mr Zuma's legal team that suggested the
timing of the charges in late 2007 may have been part of a political
plot against him.
The hundreds of corruption charges against Zuma relate to a major government arms deal in the late 1990s.
Mr Zuma said in April that a government investigation into the
arms deal had found no evidence of corruption or fraud but critics
denounced the findings as a cover-up.
ANC spokeswoman Khusela Sangoni declined to comment on the
ruling, referring questions to the Presidency where no official could be
reached for comment.
The opposition Democratic Alliance party said Abrahams should
now file the graft charges against Zuma, adding that "no man is or
should be above the law".
Zuma scandals
The South African leader has been beset by scandal during his
tenure, but has managed to hold on to his post with backing from the
ANC, which has been in power since the end of white-minority rule in
1994.
In April, he survived an impeachment vote after the
Constitutional Court said he broke the law by refusing to refund some of
the 240 million rand ($16 million) of state money spent on refurbishing
his private residence.
In December he was widely criticised for changing his finance minister twice in a week, sending the rand plummeting.
Record unemployment and a looming recession have exacerbated
discontent with Zuma's leadership. Analysts said his credibility was on
the line once more.
"There is no question that a poor result in the August election,
alongside an impending corruption case against Jacob Zuma, might
fragment the currently very solid voting support he has within the ANC
structures," BNP Paribas Securities South Africa political analyst Nic
Borain said.
No comments :
Post a Comment