Date set for DA legal bid to see Zuma spy tapes

The High Court in Pretoria will hear the DA's case for being granted access to transcripts of the so-called spy tapes on April 30, City Press reported on Sunday.

The case would only deal with whether the Democratic Alliance should be granted the transcripts and other internal memoranda -- not referring to President Jacob Zuma's representations -- of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

In March last year the Supreme Court of Appeal gave the NPA 14 days to produce the documents which were before the then prosecutions head Mokotedi Mpshe.

The DA argues that the tapes were given to the NPA by the National Intelligence Agency, rather than by Zuma's legal team. As such, the party believes the documents are not privileged information.

Zuma's advocate Kemp J Kemp argues that whether the information was obtained from the NIA has no bearing on the matter.

"The fact that the transcript was disclosed, in small part, by the [NPA] in its written submissions [press statement] dated April 6, 2009 does not detract from the nature or extent of the representations made to the [NPA] by [Zuma]."

NPA spokeswoman Bulelwa Makeke could not immediately confirm the court date.

The so-called spy tapes are recordings of intercepted phone conversations between the former heads of the Directorate of Special Operations (the defunct Scorpions), Leonard McCarthy, and NPA, Bulelani Ngcuka.

This led the NPA to believe there was political interference in the fraud and corruption case against Zuma. Consequently, on April 6, 2009, the NPA announced it was dropping the charges.

The DA believes access to the tapes will shed more light on why the charges against Zuma were dropped.