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President Jacob Zuma will appeal the ruling that Advocate Shaun Abrahams, the national director of public prosecutions, must vacate his seat.
The judgment was handed down today by the North Gauteng High Court in an application launched by two non-governmental organisations against Zuma.
They wanted the removal of Abrahams as the current national director of public prosecutions.
Former national director of public prosecutions Mxolisi Nxasana left the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in 2015 after receiving a golden handshake worth R17.3 million from Zuma.
Freedom Under Law, Corruption Watch and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution took the case to court, seeking an order declaring Nxasana’s removal invalid.
This morning, Judge Dunstan Mlambo ruled that Abrahams must vacate his seat – hours before he was expected to shed some light on whether or not corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma would be reinstated.
Due to Zuma’s pending corruption case, Mlambo ruled that he was conflicted and that the task would fall to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to appoint a new director in the next 60 days.
In response to the ruling, presidency spokesperson Bongani Ngqulunga said that Zuma was waiting for a full briefing on the judgment, but had been advised that an early assessment displayed various grounds upon which a successful appeal may be prosecuted.
“The National Prosecuting Authority is an important institution in our constitutional democracy, appointments in respect of which are not made lightly,” Ngqulunga said.
“Together with judges, who likewise are appointed by the president, the national director of public prosecutions plays a vital role in the criminal justice system. Minded by the principle of the separation of powers, constitutional legality and the rule of law, the judgement will be appealed.”
He didn’t comment any more, “out of deference to the court and the judicial system”, saying “these grounds will be properly ventilated in the normal course in court proceedings”.
Abrahams was due to respond to the Democratic Alliance today regarding the charges against Zuma.
The DA had asked him to provide written confirmation that he had received representations from Zuma with regards to the 783 counts of fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering against him.
Read: Justice against Zuma in ‘spy tapes’ saga ‘highly unlikely’ – sources
This appeal will add to the millions of rands already spent by Zuma fighting this case.
In October, the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed with costs, estimated at R30 million, the appeal put forward by Zuma and the NPA on the “spy tape” saga.
In 2009, the charges were dropped against the president just before he was sworn in as president, but the DA wanted the charges to be reinstated.
The “spy tapes” saga went back to recorded conversations between former Hawks boss Leonard McCarthy and former NPA boss Bulelani Ngcuka, which provided scathing evidence into collusion against Zuma between former NPA officials and former president Thabo Mbeki.
