PRETORIA // The logo of South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority - motto "prosecuting without fear, favour or prejudice" - shows an African woman balancing the scales of justice on her head. But while all are supposed to be equal before the law, the scales on the symbol look a little out of kilter - as does this week's decision to drop corruption charges against Jacob Zuma, the leader of the African National Congress and soon to be head of state. As he stood on a podium at the NPA headquarters in Pretoria, before a backdrop covered in the logo, South Africa's chief prosecutor, Mokotedi Mpshe, unveiled the legal grounds for the move. In tapped telephone conversations, Leonard McCarthy, the then head of the directorate of special operations, and Bulelani Ngucka, a former chief prosecutor whose wife, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngucka, was Thabo Mbeki's vice president, discussed when Mr Zuma should be recharged as the struggle for power in the ANC between the two heavyweights approached its climax.
It was a "gross abuse of process", Mr Mpshe said. "I have given evidence under oath that there has not been any meddling or manipulation of the process in this matter. I feel personally wronged and betrayed that these things were happening when I considered myself to be dealing so innocently and honestly with this matter." Leaving aside the question of the legality of the tapes and how they came to be in the possession of Mr Zuma's lawyers - Mr Mpshe said obliquely that the South African intelligence service had "legally obtained recordings of many of the same conversations" - the idea that the prosecution has "a special duty to ensure that its conduct is at all times beyond reproach" is undoubtedly an honourable argument. But after an eight-year investigation, the collation of 95,000 documents and the conviction of Mr Zuma's financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, for soliciting bribes for him, it smacks of realpolitik and a convenient get-out for the ANC leader, weeks before a general election that is certain to make him president.
Mr Mpshe stressed that the merits of the case against Mr Zuma remained strong: "It does not amount to an acquittal," he said, admitting that with the evidence only showing interference with the timing of the charges, not their substance, he over-ruled the prosecuting team, which wanted to pursue the case regardless. Everything in South African politics - and given the ruling party's control of the machinery of government, that includes supposedly independent state institutions - has been subsumed by the ANC's internal conflict. First, Mr Mbeki's allies sought to marginalise Mr Zuma but now the acolytes of the latter, who has always denied any wrongdoing, are in the ascendancy. Outside the NPA building, Mgcini Tshwaku, from the youth secretariat of Cope, an ANC breakaway party, said the authorities were putting their own interests over those of the nation. "We are seeing our democracy is being eroded away slowly but surely. This country is turning slowly into what we call a banana republic with the ruling party seeking a political solution."
Mr Zuma's supporters have always claimed that he is a victim of selective prosecution. That is certainly true - the few hundred thousand dollars that he is accused of receiving from Shaik are but a small fraction of the kickbacks associated with a multibillion-dollar arms deal - but it suggests that all, rather than none, of the alleged wrongdoers should face justice. "There was enough evidence to prosecute other people too, but that doesn't absolve Jacob Zuma from being prosecuted," said Patricia de Lille, the leader of the Independent Democrats, who first revealed alleged corruption in the weapons contracts. With the ANC proclaiming the result as a victory for the rule of law, the opposition declared the opposite. "If who is prosecuted depends on who the president is then we are in the middle of a political crisis," said Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance, who is seeking a judicial review of the decision. "If some people are above the law, this puts us in a constitutional crisis. We are not going to allow our constitution to be raped and say nothing about it." The reality is that 15 years after the advent of democracy in South Africa and the ANC's coming to power holding the moral high ground of victory over apartheid, raw practicality was always going to win the day. It comes at a cost, both to South Africa's standing and the ANC leader himself. Despite the presumption that no man is guilty until convicted, Mr Zuma will now never be able to fully clear his name in court, as he insisted he would do if he ever faced trial. Nonetheless within minutes of the decision his supporters were already rewriting its terms. "The NPA has failed to bring forward sufficient evidence which will prove our president was guilty," said Mosa Thusi, an ANC activist. "Our president of the ANC is innocent." And yesterday, Mr Zuma himself declared: "My conscience is clear ... there never was a case against me." sberger@thenational.ae
