National
NPA in contempt of court in Zuma review case: DA─── 11:40 Tue, 30 Jun 2015
Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance on Tuesday said the National Prosecuting Authority was in contempt of court because it had failed to file its heads of arguments in response to the application for a review of the withdrawal of criminal charges against President Jacob Zuma.
“National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has yet again failed to file its heads of argument in relation to the DA’s review application to have the decision to drop the 783 charges of corruption, racketeering and fraud lodged against President Jacob Zuma declared irrational and set aside,” said James Selfe, the chairman of the party’s federal council.
“By failing to file its papers on time, the NPA is, in fact, in contempt of an order of the court agreed to by all parties at the North Gauteng High Court on 16 March 2015.”
The NPA asked for an extension of the original deadline earlier this month, then agreed to file its papers by last Friday but failed to do so.
Selfe said the NPA then said it would submit its heads of arguments by the close of business on Monday, but again did not do so.
“They have now intimated that they might file papers on Wednesday without providing any clear assurances to that effect,” he said.
“After the NPA agreed to two separate dates by which to file its heads of argument and failed to meet both deadlines, the only logical conclusion is that the NPA is intent on delaying the hearing of this matter for as long as possible.”
“The NPA’s chronic tardiness in filing its papers serves no other purpose than to frustrate this process even further.”
The DA is asking the High Court in Pretoria to rule that the NPA’s decision in April 2009 to stop Zuma’s prosecution, paving the way for him to become president, was irrational, and therefore unlawful and unconstitutional.
The case has finally progressed to the stage of litigation about the actual review, after a battle of several years over the release of the so-called spytapes cited by the NPA to drop the charges.
ANA
