Zuma won't sue government

2006-09-22 17:10

Johannesburg - Former deputy president Jacob Zuma says he does not intend suing the government for maliciously prosecuting him for corruption.

"I am not that type," he told journalists at a press conference in Johannesburg on Friday, his first since the case against him was struck from the roll in the Pietermaritzburg High Court earlier this week.

He said he also did not intend seeking a permanent stay of prosecution on the charges at this stage, adding "we have the right to change our minds".

Zuma believed that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was "driven by improper motives".

This belief, he said, had not dissipated in the face of its threats to reinstate the prosecution against him, that displayed "an arrogance misplaced in such an important institution of state".

Zuma felt the NPA did not intend proceeding against him on the charges in the indictment before court, but on charges "still to be investigated and properly formulated".

"The inference must be that such investigations are designed to lead to a prosecution, instead of a determination of the truth."

NPA 'campaign against me'

Zuma said he placed great store on his freedom.

"The question will always remain as to why there was so much pressure and urgency to take me to court, when clearly there was no evidence."

Zuma said he had been the subject of investigation by the NPA for six years.

The investigation and "campaign against me", he said, were supported by leaks to the media and the lobbying of the media for support.

All this had created a culture of "Zuma-bashing", he said.

"It is unfortunate that despite my readiness to defend myself and clear my name, the NPA failed to present its case when called upon to do so," he said.

NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi, who watched the press conference, would not comment.

The national director of public prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli, would "make some pronouncements" about the case next week, said Nkosi.

Zuma said he failed to see the "technical aspects"that the NPA had alluded to in an earlier comment that the judgment against it was "temporary and technical" in nature.

'Ready to do any task'

Both sides made comprehensive cases before the court.

"To label the ruling as technical is being economical with the truth if not downright dishonest," said Zuma.

Zuma dismissed suggestions that he and President Thabo Mbeki were not speaking, saying there was "nothing extraordinary" about their lack of communication on the court ruling.

Mbeki had been out of the country and he had been out of reach at his homestead in Nkandla.

Zuma refused to be drawn on whether he wanted his job as deputy president back.

He would also not be drawn on whether he was in the race for the presidency.

He reiterated that he was "ready to do any task" he was given.

However, he said, any pending cases against him would have "interfered" with where it might have liked to deploy him.

- SAPA