South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has provided arguments on why he should not be prosecuted for corruption, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Thursday, as pressure mounts for the scandal-plagued president to step down. Zuma, who has faced and denied numerous corruption allegations since taking office, submitted documents on Wednesday night to the NPA providing reasons why 783 counts of corruption relating to a 30 billion rand ($2 billion) arms deal arranged in the late 1990s should not be reinstated.
The NPA extended the deadline to the end of January for Zuma to make his representations before deciding whether to proceed against him. South Africa’s High Court reinstated the graft charges in April 2016 and the Supreme Court upheld that decision in October, rejecting an appeal by Zuma and describing the NPA’s decision to set aside the charges as “irrational”.
Zuma has faced numerous calls to step-down with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) mounting the pressure after admitting to having discussed removing him as president before the end of his term. In October, the Supreme Court ruling lifted the rand currency against the dollar as investors bet that Zuma’s removal may be inching closer.
On Wednesday, the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) urged Parliament to postpone the annual State of the Nation Address (SONA) until Zuma steps down. The South African president is scheduled to deliver SONA in Parliament on Feb. 8. There have been calls for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to recall Zuma and deprive him of the right to deliver SONA.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said he has written to Parliament Speaker Baleka Mbete, requesting that this year’s SONA be postponed until the president has been removed from office and Parliament is afforded an opportunity to elect a new president. SONA is an annual event in South Africa, in which the president reports on the status of the nation, normally to the resumption of a joint sitting of Parliament (the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces).
ANC officials have given conflicting remarks about the fate of Zuma, with some claiming that Zuma would be recalled before SONA and others rejecting the allegations. The ANC’s National Working Committee (NWC) reportedly has requested that Zuma be removed before SONA, but ANC’s Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte has said Zuma is “going nowhere.”
“It is no secret that there is a battle within the ANC and the national executive, with each side holding starkly differing policies, ideological positions and plans of action,” Maimane said.Since Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as ANC President in December, pressure has been mounting on Zuma to resign.
Zuma has been embroiled in a series of corruption scandals.
