THE AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) and party leader Jacob Zuma will offer South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) details of arms deal corruption in return for dropping charges against him, a newspaper reported here yesterday.
The weekly Mail and Guardian newspaper alleges the ruling party will offer prosecutors the deal when it makes representations to the NPA following an appeals court decision last week to have 16 graft charges against Mr Zuma reinstated.
Last September high court judge Chris Nicholson dismissed the corruption, fraud, tax evasion and racketeering charges against Mr Zuma on a technicality, saying he should have been allowed to make representations to the NPA before being officially charged.
According to the publication, the ANC intends to show the NPA that Mr Zuma was not one of the main beneficiaries of the alleged bribery in the arms deal saga, and that prosecuting the case against him is not in the public interest.
It was also claimed the ruling party is prepared to show documentary evidence to the NPA that allegedly implicates former South African president Thabo Mebki and former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota – who is the leader of the new opposition Congress of the People party – in unlawful activity.
Mr Mbeki and Mr Zuma, the ANC candidate in this year’s presidential election, have been at loggerheads for years. Each man has been responsible for sacking the other from top government positions in the past.
It is understood the ANC and Mr Zuma will make separate representations to the NPA, with the ANC focusing on public interest aspect, and Mr Zuma on why the state cannot prove his guilt in the charges against him.
Two senior ANC members confirmed to the newspaper the party’s own report on arms deal corruption, which clears Mr Zuma of corruption, will be part of its submission to the NPA.
“Our view is that many other comrades, including Mbeki, Terror Lekota and other cabinet ministers, are implicated in the arms deal, but nothing was done about them. The question is: why is Zuma being singled out?” an ANC source told the newspaper.