The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) bid to compel the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to release documents on why it halted the prosecution of President Jacob Zuma has failed.
The DA wanted the record in order to support its application to have the decision not to prosecute Zuma set aside, the NPA said in a statement on Friday.
“The court found that the DA did not have legal standing [locus standi] in that it did not comply with the requirement in our law that to have standing in a matter one must have a direct interest therein,” said spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga.
The high court in Pretoria dismissed the DA’s application with costs.
“The effect of the judgement is that the application by the DA for the review and setting aside of the decision cannot proceed.
“This judgement clearly illustrates our view that the matter should not have been dealt with before the courts in the first instance … Our strong view has been that South Africa does not, in principle, follow a system of compulsory prosecution.
“The NPA has a discretion on whether or not to institute and conduct criminal proceedings or whether to discontinue them.”
Charges dropped
Corruption charges against Zuma were dropped ahead of the 2009 general election. Then-acting director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe announced that the charges were dropped due to an abuse of process by former head of the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), Leonard McCarthy.
Zuma was facing 16 charges linked to a multibillion-rand government arms deal, including one of racketeering, one of money-laundering, two of corruption and 12 of fraud.
Mpshe’s announcement ended a long legal battle between the authority and the ruling party’s presidential candidate.
DA federal chairperson James Selfe could not immediately be reached for comment. — Sapa