PRETORIA, June 24 (ANA) – The application by President Jacob Zuma and the National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) for leave to appeal the long drawn ‘spy tapes’ case was dismissed with costs in the North Gauteng High Court on Friday.
"The application for leave to appeal by the applicants is dismissed. The applicants are jointly and severally ordered to pay the costs of the respondent, including cost of two counsels," said Judge Aubrey Ledwaba, accompanied by Judges Cynthia Pretorius and Selewe Mothle.
Ledwaba said the court’s April judgement that set aside the 2009 NPA decision to drop the 783 criminal charges of racketeering and corruption against Zuma was clear on how and why it arrived at that decision.
The bench had again meticulously looked into the application for leave to appeal, he said.
"When the court deals with an application for leave to appeal, leave may only be given if we are of the opinion that the appeal would have reasonable prospects of success or if there are some other compelling reasons. In our view, there are no novel legal issues raised in the matter," he said.
Ledwaba said the applicants, in their arguments, "invented novel legal grounds".
"The applicants misinterpreted sections of the judgement or some selective sentences of the judgement. The fact that the public has an interest in the matter is not a justification to grant leave to appeal.
"The matter is of course important to Mr Zuma, however, if the appeal does not have reasonable prospects of success, leave to appeal should not be granted.
"We seriously considered whether the appeal will have reasonable prospects of success and came to the conclusion that there are no merits in the arguments raised by the applicant," said Ledwaba.
Regarding the argument raised by the NPA and Zuma, that the court erred in its judgement and had breached separation of powers, Ledwaba said the argument "was unfounded".
"The court did not interfere with the separation of powers principle in that it did not order or direct the NDPP (National Director of Public Prosecutions) to continue with prosecution. The attack by the applicants based on the above is unfounded," said Ledwaba.
The criminal charges were withdrawn in 2009 by the then prosecutions head Mokotedi Mpshe shortly before the national elections that brought Zuma to power.
The high court’s April ruling found that Mpshe’s decision was irrational, and that he was under political pressure to withdraw the charges, which stemmed from the multi-billion rand arms deal signed a decade earlier.
The case was brought to court by the Democratic Alliance in a lengthy legal battle to get the courts to overturn the 2009 decision.
– African News Agency (ANA)
