Another case that President Jacob Zuma will definitely lose! The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution is taking the president to the Constitutional Court for failing to appoint a national director of public prosecutions, the head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Zuma ignored a letter on this from the council (founded by ANC stalwarts Frene Ginwala and Sipho Pityana) warning him of the problem. Dictators fear prosecution after leaving office and Zuma is no exception. He wants a lapdog head of prosecutions. We all know Menzi Simelane played a critical role in the final assassination of the Scorpions. The rest is history.
Many are not aware that Zuma gave a special presidential pardon to the husband of current director of public prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba to buy her loyalty. She has refused to hand over the tapes used by the NPA to help Zuma to avoid prosecution. The harassment of prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach is directed by Jiba – Breytenbach's sin is attempting to prosecute police intelligence chief Richard Mdluli. Jiba and Mdluli are "comrades in arms".
The failure of the state to successfully prosecute the murderers of Andries Tatane of Ficksburg is a legacy of Zuma. He has never hailed Tatane as one of our heroes, like Solomon Mahlangu, Hector Pieterson and many others who died for the people.
The other failure of the state prosecuting authority is in cases of corruption, such as those involving Gaston Savoi and John Block. These cases have been weakened by the NPA rescuing them from prosecution.
We wish the council a resounding victory, because we all know why Zuma wants his "homeboy" to head the NPA. We do not love this cunning Zuma who refuses to be open about his R206-million Nkandla estate upgrade and why, if he is innocent, he prevented the NPA and the Scorpions from investigating certain offshore accounts. – Thelma Tau, Ezakheni, Ladysmith