SPECULATION in political circles was rife yesterday that the National Prosecuting Authority has decided to withdraw charges against presidential hopeful Jacob Zuma.
Cope wants Zuma security probe<http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=961031> Show tolerance, Zuma tells ANC<http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/-http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=961279> Jacob Zuma trial ends<http://multimedia.thetimes.co.za/photos/2008/09/jacob-zuma-trial-ends/> But the NPA insisted that such a decision had not been taken, and Zuma’s lawyers say they know nothing about it. Several sources around the ANC leader, including a senior party source with knowledge of its legal strategy, told The Times that acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe has decided to withdraw its case but that this is yet to be communicated to Zuma’s legal team. Zuma is scheduled to appear before the Pietermaritzburg High Court on charges of corruption and fraud in August. But his legal team earlier this year made representations to the NPA on why the case should be scrapped and prosecution abandoned. According to one of the sources, Mpshe was supposed to communicate his decision to Zuma’s legal team yesterday but this was not done due to an internal dispute within the NPA. However, NPA spokesman Tlali Tlali denied this emphatically. “There is no decision. It is still being considered and the NPA is applying its mind. Zuma’s lawyers have contacted us and we have told them the same,” Tlali said. Michael Hulley, Zuma’s lawyer, also confirmed that no formal decision was communicated to him and that there was no deadline set for the NPA to respond to Zuma’s representations. “There is no deadline. We never had any thought of tying them into a date. We have no angst that by March 17 we have not heard of a decision,” Hulley said. A NPA official with intimate knowledge of the unfolding process discounted the speculation as “completely untrue”, adding that there was no decision yet and that there was no internal dispute to speak of. -- [email protected] 0789228959 021-3618160 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
