Banished+to+political+purgatory,+Zuma,+Oellermann,+The+Star

The Star, Johannesburg, August 23, 2006 //Edition 2//
=Ex-deputy says he was banished to political purgatory=


 * Ingrid Oellermann**

Jacob Zuma has alleged that the state's decision not to prosecute him in August 2003 - and to only prosecute his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik - was a deliberate strategy to convict him in the public eye in absentia and then "sentence" him to dismissal from his position as the deputy president.

Zuma said this was the only inference that could be drawn from the state's conduct in the matter. He said this in a second affidavit filed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court yesterday in the legal battle launched by Zuma and his co-accused, Thint Holdings (Southern Africa), and its managing director, Pierre Moynot, to win a permanent stay of prosecution or alternatively to have the fraud and corruption charges against them struck from the roll.

He suggests it was "ludicrous" for the state to suggest that he was dismissed as deputy president of the country on June 14 2005 without a decision having been taken to charge him with any offence.

National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Vusi Pikoli maintains in his affidavit filed last week that he made the decision to prosecute Zuma only on June 20 last year and denied having told President Thabo Mbeki of his intentions in advance.

He accused Zuma in his affidavit of branding Mbeki a "liar" by claiming to have been fired as a result of the charges against him, saying the president, in his address to parliament on June 14, spelt out his reasons for dismissing Zuma. The reasons, in summary, were that the findings of the court in the Shaik case made it untenable for Zuma to continue holding the position of deputy president.

In his response, Zuma said it would have been absurd for him to have been dismissed as deputy president on June 14 and for the national director of public prosecutions to have announced thereafter that he would not be prosecuted.

"I respectfully submit that the only inference to be drawn from the state's conduct is that the decision not to prosecute me in August 2003, but to prosecute Shaik only, was a deliberate stratagem to try me and convict me in the public eye, in absentia, and then to sentence me to dismissal from my position."

Zuma said this allegation was "incontrovertibly backed" by the conduct of former NDPP Bulelani Ngcuka, who called "one of the most widely publicised press conferences in South African history" on August 23 2003 (with then justice minister Penuell Maduna) and announced that although they had a prima facie case of corruption against the deputy president, they were not sure they had a "winnable" case.

"No one could have failed to foresee the effect such a pronouncement would have on me … I was branded a crook who had covered his tracks well. I was banished to political purgatory. The media and parliamentary opposition howled indefatigably for my resignation."

Zuma said although the offences with which he is now charged differ from those with which Shaik was charged, in the public eye he had been "tried and convicted" together with Shaik.


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3404980**

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