Call it Zille Vs. Zuma: Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille has indicated that if the National Prosecuting Authority dropped its case against Zuma and “all other legal avenues have been exhausted”, her party may take on a private prosecution of the controversial ANC leader.
Such an option is laid out in South Africa’s Criminal Procedures Act. According to the Act, any private citizen who proves a “substantial and peculiar interest” in a criminal case arising out of some “injury he individually suffered” in consequence of that offense, may conduct a private prosecution if the National Director of Public Prosecutions has declined to prosecute.
The option drew skepticism from the country’s legal experts, who noted a private prosecution would be “very difficult” and would have to overcome “many technical and procedural hurdles”. “Zuma’s lawyers would have a field day” with such a case, said Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos.
The DA leader and Cape Town mayor said the “rot will quickly consolidate itself in the body politic” if someone guilty of such serious corruption charges were to assume the highest office in the land.
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