Zuma 'in Kafkaesque scenario'
2008-09-12 19:36
Johannesburg - Jacob Zuma had been in a Kafkaesque situation, Judge Chris Nicholson said on Friday as he set aside the decision to prosecute the African National Congress leader.
"The court has gained the impression that all the machinations to which I have alluded form part of some great political contest or game," he said in his judgment.
"For years the applicant is under threat of prosecution for serious corruption and yet never brought to trial.
"There is a ring of the works of Kafka about this."
Nicholson said blame for the delays in legal proceedings could not be attributed to Zuma, and that claims of a political conspiracy were perhaps not as far-fetched as some believed.
"I am... not convinced that the applicant was incorrect in averring political meddling in his prosecution," said Nicholson.
Born in Prague in 1883, Franz Kafka became one of the most important writers in the German language in the 20th century.
References on Wikipedia to Kafka say his works, including novels and short stories, are frequently concerned with "troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal and bureaucratic world".
The online encyclopaedia says while the meaning of his works is extremely dense and open to a multitude of interpretations, themes of alienation and persecution are repeatedly emphasised.
"The apparent hopelessness and absurdity that seem to permeate his works are considered emblematic of existentialism."
In a posthumously published Kafka novel, The Trial, a character called Josef K awakens one morning to find, for reasons never revealed, that he is arrested and prosecuted for an unspecified crime.
Eventually he is executed for this crime, having never been told what is he is on trial for, and maintaining his innocence until the end.
Upon declaring his innocence, he is immediately questioned "innocent of what", says the Wikipedia article.
The website says one of the key themes of the novel is bureaucracy; "an illustration of a truly twisted yet realistic brand of law and church".
Another website says Kafka's works reflect an "imaginative anticipation of totalitarianism in the random and faceless bureaucratic terror".
Delivering his ruling, Nicholson said on Friday's proceedings had nothing to do with the guilt or otherwise of Zuma on the charges brought against him, but were about procedural steps taken by the State.
Speaking after the court ruling, Zuma told a crowd of thousands of supporters that "the judge said... this is a political wrangle".
"[The judge said] the manner in which they charged me, is so unconstitutional... and said it was all unfair."
"It was difficult. Not that I'm saying it's all over now," added Zuma.
- SAPA