Hofmeyr bombshell a dud

02 April 2015 - 03:12 By Graeme Hosken

The accusation by deputy national director of public prosecutions Willie Hofmeyr that former president Thabo Mbeki conspired to bring about President Jacob Zuma's downfall is unlikely to influence the Pretoria High Court's decision on whether to reinstate corruption and other charges against Zuma. So said constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos, adding: "The person [then national director of public prosecutions Moko tedi Mpshe] who made the decision not to prosecute Zuma, and who was supposed to submit an affidavit to court, is no longer with the NPA."Said De Vos: "Hofmeyr's affidavit is, in fact, a lot of hearsay and conjecture. I'm not sure how helpful it will be to the NPA, which wants to stop the judicial review of the decision not to prosecute Zuma."There is no clarity on what weight the court will give this affidavit."Hofmeyr filed the affidavit on Tuesday. In it he alleged that Leonard McCarthy, then the head of the now defunct Directorate for Special Operations (the Scorpions), spoke to the then national director of public prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, and former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils about the planned prosecution of Zuma. The affidavit describes Kasrils and Ngcuka as conduits between the NPA and Mbeki.Mbeki's spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, said yesterday that Mbeki's office had noted the "old allegation that the former president was party to a political conspiracy".Ratshitanga said: "Mbeki will determine the appropriate course of action once he has had access to the [Hofmeyr] affidavit."Ngcuka failed to reply to e-mailed questions at the time of going to print.Zuma's lawyer, Michael Hulley, said he and his client had two weeks in which to consider and respond to the affidavits of the DA and the NPA. The DA has asked the High Court to overturn Mpshe's decision not to prosecute Zuma.De Vos said: "The NPA is completely politically compromised, has been for a long time and that won't change."De Vos said that if Mpshe's decision not to prosecute Zuma were found to be legally unsound "the immediate consequence will be that Zuma will face 700 charges of corruption and fraud"."If that happens then the interesting part will be what could be done to make [Zuma's prosecution] go away again."De Vos said that the Supreme Court of Appeal had ruled that, provided there was a valid legal case, and no conspiracy to manufacture evidence, the prosecution of Zuma on corruption charges could go ahead...

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