‘Corruption not a crime in Africa' - Zuma

[Dingswayo]

President Zuma

ONE of the reasons South African President Jacob Zuma believed criminal charges against him relating to the arms deal should be dropped was because corruption is only a crime in a "Western paradigm", it was revealed Sunday.

And even if it was a crime, Zuma's lawyers apparently argued, it was a crime where there are "no victims", reported a local newspaper.

These startling insights into Zuma's 2009 written representations to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) are contained in a detailed NPA analysis document, which City Press has obtained.

This synopsis is attached to a memorandum dated 3 March 2009 and drawn up by Advocate Billy Downer, the senior state prosecutor who was seconded to the now defunct Directorate of Special Operations (DSO, also known as the Scorpions) for the Zuma investigation.

At the time, Zuma had already been elected president of the ANC but was not yet president of the country. Zuma's lawyer, Michael Hulley, made representations to the NPA for the charges against him to be dropped.

The document indicates that page 22 of Zuma's 88-page written submission deals with one of Zuma's arguments, which the prosecutors restate as follows: "Western paradigm brands this criminal."

"This" is probably a reference to the types of loans Zuma's ex-financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, claimed to have innocently given him. Shaik was eventually convicted.

In their scathing response to this point, the prosecutors write: "The law prescribes that it is criminal. Until the law is amended to provide that institutionalised cronyism is not criminal, the ‘Western paradigm' will have to be accepted."

The response to the argument that there are no victims to the crime is similarly dismissive: "There are victims. The general public."
Based on this synopsis, Downer's memorandum emphatically recommends that the NPA rejects Zuma's representations.

"Our conclusion is that even in respect of those issues regarding the merits that Zuma does address, there is no adequate answer to the state's allegations.

"If anything, Zuma's representations confirm the structure of the general corruption."
'Blackmail'

The document also reveals that Hulley apparently argued that one of the considerations that militated against Zuma's prosecution was that it would cause "general unrest through dissatisfaction with the NPA".

Downer and the other prosecutors labelled this "blackmail". "The argument is just as much that not prosecuting will lead to mass dissatisfaction."
On Friday, the ANC said it was "unfazed" and there was nothing new about the story.

The party's spokesperson, Zizi Kodwa, said: "People peddle lies in the public to drive vindictive agendas against President Jacob Zuma. Nothing of credible note has been presented so far."

Zuma's spokesperson, Mac Maharaj, did not respond to questions on the president's views on corruption by the time of going to press.

Source: newzimbabwe


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