Court releases Zuma ‘spy tapes’

Democratic Alliance leader Hellen Zille addresses a crowd of supporters outside the Northern Gauteng High Court while supporters sing and dance waiting for the National Prosecuting Authority to hand over the so-called “spy tapes” in Pretoria yesterday.

AFP/Pretoria

A South African court yesterday handed an opposition party the controversial “spy” recordings which were used to dismiss criminal charges against President Jacob Zuma in 2009, allowing him to stand for election.

The High Court in Pretoria handed over the tapes to Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille, after a five-year legal battle.

The tapes could be used to reopen corruption charges against Zuma, piling pressure on the already embattled ANC leader.

The recordings, dubbed “spy tapes,” are said to be conversations between the head of a special investigations unit and the ex-director of public prosecutions discussing Zuma’s corruption charges, which were related to an arms deal.

Zuma’s lawyers argued that the conversations suggested political interference in charging him.

As a result the fraud and corruption charges were dropped on the eve of April 2009 elections.

The Democratic Alliance had maintained that the decision was inappropriate.

The dropping of the charges cleared the way for Zuma to stand for election after he defeated his rival, former president Thabo Mbeki, for the leadership of the ruling ANC.

In a statement, Zuma’s office said he “welcomes the release of the record relating to the so-called spy tape.”

Zille said she was confident the recordings and transcripts from the national Prosecution Authority meetings would not exonerate Zuma and that the DA would apply for a legal review application to reverse the decision to withdraw the charges against him.

“This is a very, very important package I am holding in my hand,” Zille said, triumphantly raising a sealed envelope containing the recordings. “They have fought for five years to stop us getting these. You are all here to witness this historic day,” she added, surrounded by supporters in blue DA T-shirts who cheered and waved “Give Us The Tapes” placards.

A polygamous Zulu traditionalist with no formal education, Zuma has been beset by scandals throughout his career.

An anti-graft report in March said he had “benefited unduly” from $23mn state-funded security upgrades to his home, which included a cattle enclosure and amphitheatre, and said he should pay back some of the costs.

Zille said the DA would analyse the audio on the tapes and the transcription of the meetings held by the NPA that led to the corruption case being dropped.

“We believe the charges were dropped for political reasons to allow him to run in 2009,” Zille said.

“We will argue that the NPA did not have the evidence to dismiss the charges. We will bring a lot of evidence to bear on that. Jacob Zuma will have his day in court.”