A South African appeals court on Thursday dismissed President Jacob Zuma’s request to prevent the release of the so-called “spy tapes,” which the opposition believes could provide evidence that he fraudulently won the 2009 election.
The National Prosecution Authority (NPA) cleared Zuma of 700 corruption charges three weeks before the elections, saying the tapes showed there was a “political conspiration” against him.
The tapes are believed to contain conversations between the then head of a police anti-corruption unit and a former NPA head.
It is not known what the two said. Reports have said they discussed when would be the most politically damaging time to charge Zuma with corruption.
But the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) suspects the tapes do not justify withdrawing corruption charges against Zuma and that they reveal there was no conspiracy.
Zuma’s legal team has battled the DA’s court petition to make the tapes public for years, arguing that the opposition party would use them for political gain.
The DA believes the president does not want to reveal that a politically influenced decision by the NPA helped him win the elections in 2009.
The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein ordered the NPA to hand the tapes over to the DA within five days.
“The court systems are being hijacked by politicians like Zuma and his network,” DA leader Helen Zille said Thursday.
“Today is an historic day in our young, constitutional democracy,” DA said in a statement.
Zuma won a second term as president in May. He is currently embroiled in a major corruption scandal, after a report by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela said he “unduly benefited” from an upgrade to his rural homestead that cost taxpayers more than 20 million dollars.
Madonsela rejected Zuma’s argument that all parts of the upgrade were necessary for security purposes.
GNA
