Former deputy president Jacob Zuma says the Scorpions were worse than the apartheid-era police force and they had investigated him from ”from head to toe” during controversial search-and-seizure raids at his homes in Johannesburg, Nkandla and Durban.
He said his family had also been dragged into the raids.
Zuma described the stress of the investigation and the corruption case against him to thousands of delegates at the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) congress in Midrand on Wednesday night.
Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Herbert Msimang dismissed the case against Zuma and two subsidiaries of Thales, the French defence group earlier in the day.
Msimang chastised prosecutors for failing to properly prepare the case against Zuma, describing their approach as unsound and prejudicial.
”The state limped from one disaster to another,” said Msimang as he denied a prosecution motion to postpone the trial for a third time.
Msimang stopped short of dismissing the case outright and prosecutors hinted they intended to file fresh charges against the 64-year-old Zuma at a later date.
”The National Prosecuting Authority [also known as the Scorpions] is obviously disappointed with this decision but wishes to stress that it does not detract from the state’s case,” NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said outside the court in Pietermaritzburg.
A small group carried a mock coffin topped with a picture of Mbeki, blamed by Zuma’s camp for drumming up the corruption case to ruin his political career.
Zuma said the Scorpions had antagonised his family during the raids and he had challenged them on this. Zuma said their response had been that ”it was the law”.
”I said you’ve got to change that because it’s a wrong law,” said Zuma.
”I said ‘I must tell you, you are doing even what the apartheid state did not do’.”
”If they thought there was somebody who had committed a crime, they would investigate until they had a case then charge the person.
”I said, ‘you are worse than them’.”
Zuma thanked the Cosatu delagates for standing by him.
”I thought it would be appropriate just to stand here and thank you for the very principled decision you took as a federation,” he told the cheering delegates.
”You were straight. At the end of the day, the defence of this country is in your hands.”
Zuma said Msimang’s judgement made helped him regain confidence in the judiciary, ”that in fact we have a judiciary that interprets the law”.
”He [Msimang] stuck to the correct principles which is the best defence of our Constitution, our democracy.”
He called on the media to apologise for the way the case was reported on, saying he had been found guilty before appearing in court.
”The media, eh you!” he said ruefully.
He asked why the media had not asked where the prosecution’s case was after a prolonged period of investigation.
”I did not even asked to have a day in court. I just asked, if there is a case against me, why was I not taken to court.”
He said even the judge commented on how the prosecution’s case had disappeared.
The rand dropped 1,2% against the dollar immediately after the ruling before recovering.
But economists say the outlook would remain clouded by concern that a Zuma presidential bid could embroil the country in a debate over the direction of the economy, heightening class divisions, as well as bring more internal turmoil for the ANC.
”Factions are emerging within the African National Congress and this is going to weigh on the market quite heavily,” Brait economist Colen Garrow said.
Political conspiracy?
Zuma was fired from his job as South Africa’s deputy president last year after a judge found he had a ”generally corrupt” relationship with his financial adviser Schabir Shaik, who was convicted.
Prosecutors later filed charges against Zuma himself, accusing him of receiving bribes from Thales subsidiaries Thint in connection with a controversial arms deal. Zuma was later acquitted of rape charges in a separate trial.
Msimang’s decision to throw out the graft charges also applied to the state’s case against Thint.
Zuma has denied wrongdoing and called the charges a plot to thwart his path to the presidency — a position backed by his left-wing allies, including Cosatu.
”The overwhelming majority of the working people, of the working class, the poor, the marginalised should be very happy today,” Cosatu Secretary General Zwelenzima Vavi said.
”This was all a political-conspired case to prevent him from advancing his political career.”
Zuma remains a deputy president of the ANC and has been rallying support ahead of a key meeting in December 2007 that will elect the next ANC leader, who is virtually guaranteed to become South Africa’s president in 2009.
But while the ruling was a victory for Zuma, it also means the case will dog him as prosecutors consider new charges — a move with political risks both for Zuma and prosecutors.
”Ordinary people will see this as a victory for Zuma,” independent political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi said. ”It gives Zuma the opportunity to spin the matter in a way that if the state does bring [charges] back, the reaction from the public will be very hostile.” – Sapa, Reuters