The highly anticipated decision on whether former president Jacob Zuma will face corruption charges will be announced in Pretoria on Friday.
“The National Director of Public Prosecutions [NDPP], Advocate Shaun Abrahams will today [Friday] at 15:30 announce his decision in respect of the Spy Tapes matter...,” National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Advocate Luvuyo Mfaku said in an advisory to media.
The decision would be made during a press briefing scheduled at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head office in Silverton, east of Pretoria.
Last month, the NPA said Abrahams had made a decision on whether Zuma would have his day in court.
That announcement, however, will be put on ice, for a few weeks at least, owing to an agreement between the NPA and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac), a civil society organisation, which bound Abrahams to give two weeks’ notice to Casac before announcing the much-awaited decision on the Zuma charges.
“We have advised Casac that the NDPP has made his decision and will honour the two-week arrangement in terms of which he undertook to notify them before he announces his decision,” Mfaku said at the time.
"That two-week period would lapse on the 15th of March."
Abrahams’s decision is expected to pave the way forward on the corruption allegations against Zuma, dating back more than a decade.
"The NDPP has received the memorandum outlining the recommendations of the team, he will peruse it and advise on the way forward in due course," Mfaku said.
Zuma filed papers with the NPA on January 31. In the paper, Zuma gave reasons why he should not face fraud and corruption charges.
The NPA had set an initial deadline of November 30, but after a request from Zuma, the former president was granted a seven-week extension.
On November 30, South Africa’s biggest opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), filed papers with the NPA outlining why 783 counts of corruption, fraud, money laundering, and racketeering against Zuma, should immediately be reinstituted.
The Supreme Court of Appeal last year refused the NPA and Zuma leave to appeal a high court ruling which set aside the 2009 decision to drop the charges which relate to South Africa's multi-billion rand arms deal.
Zuma, 75, resigned as President of South Africa on February 14 under severe pressure from his party, the ruling African National Congress, bringing an end to his nine scandal-riddled years at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
- African News Agency (ANA),
