8/2/08

Zuma graft trial pitting ANC against SAfrica's judiciary

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — Top officials from South Africa's ANC on Friday called corruption charges against leader Jacob Zuma "political" ahead of his trial next week, amid fears the party's criticism of judges threatens judicial independence.

"It is a political case which is trying to stop the old man from becoming the president of South Africa," ANC Youth League president Julius Malema told reporters a day after Zuma lost a last-ditch legal battle over the charges.

"Zuma must be president whether there is a court case or not," he said.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said at the same news conference that 66-year-old Zuma, favoured to succeed Thabo Mbeki as president in elections to be held next year, had been "moved from prosecution to persecution."

The ANC leader's corruption trial is to open Monday in Pietermaritzburg, but will likely be further delayed with Zuma's lawyers filing legal challenges to the case.

Attempts by Zuma to have the case declared unlawful could even delay the trial until after general elections in April 2009.

He faces 16 charges, including money laundering and racketeering in a case which also implicates French arms firm Thales.

Zuma, who toppled Mbeki as ANC leader in December, has been under investigation for the past eight years and has always maintained his innocence. He has promised to step down if convicted.

On Thursday, the Constitutional Court rejected Zuma's bid to prevent documents seized in police raids being used in evidence at the trial.

Zuma had been accused of soliciting a bribe of 500,000 rand (68,000 euros, 43,500 dollars) annually from Pretoria-base Thint, a subsidiary of French arms firm Thales, to prevent it being investigated over an arms deal.

In the build-up to Monday's court date, a series of attacks by the African National Congress has raised fears the party is using a strategy which threatens judicial independence.

"The short term priority appears to be to ensure that Zuma gets into power in 2009 and they seem to think that the courts are an expendable casualty in that battle," said Frans Cronje, deputy chief executive of the South African Institute of Race Relations, a Johannesburg-based thinktank.

Mantashe has accused Constitutional Court judges of being "counter-revolutionary", and groups such as the ANC Youth League and its veterans' association followed up with a warning to the judges in a joint statement last week.

"We call on judges to either stick to their daily jobs, or form political parties if they want to play politics. They are no gods," said the statement.

Mantashe's comments in a newspaper interview came after a number of Constitutional Court judges accused a junior colleague of improperly trying to influence them in matters relating to Zuma's corruption trial.

In an interview with the Mail and Guardian newspaper, Mantashe said the real target was Zuma, placed in the crosshairs by "counter-revolutionary forces."

"The comments of Gwede Mantashe is a strategic softening up of the judiciary and of public opinion so if steps are taken to bring the judiciary in line with ANC aspirations then people will be prepared for it," Cronje told AFP.

David Unterhalter of Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand Law Clinic said in an interview on public radio that the recent saga was "a very dangerous turn of events."

"It has called into question the role of the judges as an independent institution, to suggest the judges should be part of a revolutionary strategy to transform the country -- that is not the role of the judiciary."

Many South Africans assumed the "revolution" ended with the adoption of the country's post-apartheid constitution more than a decade ago.

But such talk has swirled in the public arena recently as Zuma allies claim they will "take up arms and kill" for him and the revolution.

"It is a sad truth of politics that revolutionary movements, no matter how noble their intentions, become bad governments," said Laurence Caromba, an analyst at the Center for International Policy Studies.

He said South Africa was "sliding inexorably towards its worst political crisis since the 1994 transition."






--
Jean-Louis Kayitenkore
Procurement Consultant
Gsm: +250-08470205
Home: +250-55104140
P.O. Box 3867
Kigali-Rwanda
East Africa
Blog: http://www.cepgl.blogspot.com
Skype ID : Kayisa66

No comments:

Post a Comment