Former NPA head Mpshe 'respects' Zuma ruling

Johannesburg – Former National Prosecuting Authority head Mokotedi Mpshe said on Friday he respected the High Court in Pretoria's ruling that his decision not to prosecute President Jacob Zuma be reviewed and set aside.

"The court has spoken. I respect the decision," he told News24 in an SMS.

Mpshe would not comment further.

The full bench of the court on Friday found Zuma should face the 783 charges of corruption.

In September 2008, in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg, Judge Chris Nicholson dismissed criminal charges against Zuma, citing a political conspiracy to influence the case by former president Thabo Mbeki and others.

Nicholson's decision was taken to the Supreme Court of Appeal and overturned. Zuma subsequently appealed this in the Constitutional Court, setting in motion a direct approach to the NPA to make written and oral representations on why the case should be dropped.

On April 6 2009 Mpshe said recordings of telephone conversations between then-Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy and former NPA boss Bulelani Ngcuka showed political interference in the decision to charge Zuma.

The two were recorded discussing the timing of bringing charges against Zuma. The charges related to his alleged involvement in the country’s multibillion-rand arms deal.

Zuma’s former financial adviser Schabir Shaik was found guilty of fraud and corruption by the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban in June 2005. He tried to solicit a bribe for Zuma from a French arms company involved in the deal.

On April 7 2009 the charges against Zuma were withdrawn in the High Court in Durban.

Zuma was sworn in for his first term as president in May that year, following general elections.