Former President Jacob G. Zuma (City Press)
Following the announcement by the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Shaun Abrahams, that the National Prosecuting Authority would go ahead with prosecuting the former president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, his legal team has quickly responded and advised that it was ‘likely’ that they would be challenging this prosecution. Speaking to reporters on Saturday in response to the NDPP’s Friday announcement, Michael Hulley said that the most likely course of action for his team was to “take the NDPP’s decision on review”.
On Friday, Mr Shaun Abrahams made the much awaited announcement that his authority would be going ahead with the prosecution of the former head of state. He stated in his announcement that Zuma’s representations had not been enough for him to avoid his day in court, adding that he would be facing 16 charges which included racketeering, corruption, fraud and money laundering. These charges are being reinstated nine years after another NDPP mysteriously and irrationally dropped them after the emergence of the so called “spy tapes” which were produced by Zuma’s legal team at the time in 2009. It was after this that Zuma was then eligible to stand for president of the country.
Michael Hulley, who is part of Zuma’ legal team indicated that the most likely course of action was to contest the decision that had been made by the NDPP, adding that it was not clear how the NDPP had arrived at the decision to prosecute. He further added that it was also not clear why the head of the NPA had refused their representations. “The rationale for this decision is not clearly apparent from the communication, nor is the basis for refusal,” said Hulley. He added, however, that the decision would only be made after consultations with Zuma.
Meanwhile, also responding to the announcement that Zuma would face his day in court, a number of organisations showed how happy they were at this turn of events. FF Plus indicated that they felt that Abrahams’ decision was the right one for the country while the ANC neutrally announced that they felt that he was innocent until proven guilty.
