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'Courts can put brakes on JZ'

ALL SMILES: ANC president Jacob Zuma in the Durban high court yesterday to hear charges against him officially dropped. 06/04/09. PIc. Thuli Dlamini. © Sowetan.
ALL SMILES: ANC president Jacob Zuma in the Durban high court yesterday to hear charges against him officially dropped. 06/04/09. PIc. Thuli Dlamini. © Sowetan.

Anna Majavu

Anna Majavu

While the National Prosecuting Authority has withdrawn the charges against him, ANC president Jacob Zuma's future as the president of the country can still be stalled.

Director of the Institute for Accountability and senior counsel Paul Hoffman says Zuma can be interdicted from becoming president - until any public or private prosecution against him is concluded.

Hoffman was responding to an application lodged by the DA in the Gauteng North high court calling for a judicial review of the NPA's decision. The matter is set for June 7, just weeks after Zuma's likely inauguration as South Africa's president.

Hoffman said yesterday that the application had "a reasonably good chance of success".

He said the DA could add an application for an interim interdict restraining Zuma from accepting nomination as president until the court had decided whether or not to review the NPA's decision .

The NPA Act allows a high court judge to order a judicial review of any NPA decision if that decision was "irrational, unconstitutional, unlawful or biased".

"The only rational and lawful decision in the circumstances could have been to proceed with Zuma's prosecution," DA leader Helen Zille argued in her application.

Zille also argued that acting national director of public prosecution Mokotedi Mpshe could be "reasonably suspected of bias" in his decision since he depended on Zuma for his job.

Meanwhile, ID leader Patricia de Lille has laid criminal charges against former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy and former NPA head Bulelani Ngcuka at the Caledon Square police station yesterday.

Under the NPA Act, no person, organ of state, or employee of the state may obstruct, hinder or interfere with the prosecuting authority. If convicted, Ngcuka and McCarthy could face 10 years in prison.

NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali yesterday declined to comment on the ID's charges.

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