Mbeki 'vindicated' by ruling

2009-01-13 17:22

Johannesburg - Former president Thabo Mbeki said he was pleased with Monday's Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that found no evidence of meddling by himself or the Cabinet in the Jacob Zuma prosecution.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mbeki said: "I welcome and accept the determinations made by the SCA that Judge [Chris] Nicholson had no facts before him to suggest that I and the Cabinet interfered with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in its consideration of matters relating to Mr Jacob Zuma.

"I agree with the SCA where it says Judge Nicholson made 'gratuitous findings against persons who were not called upon to defend themselves; (failed) to distinguish between allegation, fact and suspicion; and (transgressed) the proper boundaries between judicial, executive and legislative functions'."

"Accordingly, I also agree with the SCA where it says, 'Most of the allegations (of political interference) were not only irrelevant but they were gratuitous and based on suspicion and not on fact'."

Judge's conspiracy theory

He agreed there was no evidence to support a finding that suggested a strategy involving former justice minister Penuell Maduna, himself and other Cabinet members, as well as a causal connection between himself the Cabinet and former NPA head Bulelani Ngcuka on the Zuma case.

"They were instead part of the judge's own conspiracy theory and not one advanced by Mr Zuma," said the statement.

"Like the SCA, we had found the manner by which Judge Nicholson made negative findings against the President and the Cabinet 'incomprehensible'."

Mbeki said he and the Cabinet had intervened in the NPA's appeal to the SCA because they wanted to correct the "unfair and unwarranted inferences" made by Nicholson against them.

"... And as the SCA said, we 'had ample reason to be upset by the reasons in the judgment which cast aspersions on (us) without regard to (our) basic rights to be treated fairly.' The SCA ruling has vindicated us."

Damaging integrity

He said the SCA had provided leadership on not damaging people's integrity through untested allegations.

Mbeki said leaders and citizens should reflect on this practice to avoid the "entrenchment of a culture which may eventually corrupt our society".

Mbeki was forced to resign in September 2008 after the Nicholson judgment in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, which set aside the prosecution against Zuma. It led the ruling ANC to say they no longer had faith in Mbeki.

The NPA considers Zuma a charged man after the Nicholson judgment was overturned, while Zuma's legal team is considering its next move, which could include an appeal to the Constitutional Court.

The actual comments on Mbeki, the Cabinet, Maduna and Ngcuka, and inferences of political meddling were not struck out by the SCA, as the judges believed it would be pointless to do so now, but the NPA's appeal was upheld and the prosecution could continue.

- SAPA