South Africa’s Democratic Alliance party yesterday won the legal right to challenge the National Prosecution Authority’s decision to drop corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma in 2009, writes Bill Corcoran in Cape Town.
The authority dropped the charges against Mr Zuma before he became president, and the party set in motion a legal challenge against the decision.
Mr Zuma had been charged by the authority with accepting bribes from a French arms company while he was deputy president in the late 1990s.
Last year, the North Gauteng High Court found that Democratic Alliance did not have the right to bring such a case before the court. However, the Supreme Court of Appeal overruled the lower court, saying the country’s main opposition party had an interest in ensuring public power was exercised in accordance with the constitution.
If the legal challenge revealed the authority acted improperly by dropping the charges, it could derail Mr Zuma’s bid to secure a second term as African National Congress party president – and ultimately as South African president.