Supporters of the leader of SouthAfrica's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party have welcomed news thatJacob Zuma will appeal Monday's ruling that revives graft charges against him.Zuma's defense team announced Wednesday that it would soon approach thecountry's Constitutional Court to challenge Monday's ruling, which effectivelyclears the way for prosecutors to revive corruption charges against him. Butsome political analysts believe the announcement is a political strategy todelay Zuma's trial ahead of South Africa's presidential election, which he isheavily favored to win. Constitutional law expert Professor Shadrak Gutto tellsreporter Peter Clottey that Zuma's chances of success in the new appeal areslim.
"Heintends appealing against the judgment, which was handed down on Monday to theSupreme Court of Appeal. Now, in this particular matter, the Supreme Court ofAppeal's judgment, there is a general feeling in the country among the legalfraternity that it was one of the best judgments that we have really seencoming out of our courts for a long time. And that it was one, which dealt witheach issue, looked at the law on the points, looked at the constitution, andtried to interpret the constitution in such a way that it gives sense, giventhe facts that we had," Professor Gutto noted.
Hesaid Zuma's chances of winning an appeal against Monday's ruling would besignificantly slim.
"Itis going to make it very difficult for an appeal on constitutional grounds andlegal grounds really to have a chance of success," he said.
ProfessorGutto said there could be an understanding that Zuma's defense move wasprimarily motivated to delay charges against him to proceed ahead of theupcoming election.
"Thatis an opinion, which may find some credence in the fact that Zuma has made somany appeals on so many issues that has substantially made a delay in anyhearing of the charges against him in a court of law. But we must accept from aconstitutional point of view and as a lawyer personally, I have to say that youcan never refuse an accused person the right to make an appeal even if it is ontechnical grounds, whatever the motive. In this case of course the suspicion isthat it would delay the matter until the elections take place," Professor Guttonoted.
Hesaid the ruling ANC would be plunged into controversy if it wins a majority inthe elections and attempts to amend the constitution.
"Andonce the election has taken place, assuming that the ruling party wins themajority, he (Zuma) would be the president. And if he is, then there is a lotof talk within the party itself that they want to change the law and theconstitution to give immunity to a sitting president. Now, that is a politicalstrategy and it is one which is going to be extremely controversial because itmeans putting in place a law that would encourage presidents to abuse the legalsystem," he said.
ProfessorGutto said ongoing negotiations between Zuma's defense team and the nationalprosecutors could lead to a possible compromise to resolve the legal troublesof the ruling party's presidential candidate in the upcoming election.
"Acompromise could also b reached in terms of plea bargaining where he (Zuma)concedes to some wrongdoing and in exchange, he is therefore given some lightsentence or charged with a light offense, and so on. But all of that would bedone in the public domain, and I believe that Jacob Zuma so far has strenuouslytried to say he was involved in no wrongdoing. And plea bargainers actuallyadvise him to concede that there was some wrongdoing. So no one knows wherethat would be going. But it is going to be very difficult for the NationalProsecuting Authority to really bargain with him (Zuma) and let him off scotfree," Professor Gutto pointed out.
Zuma wascharged for a second time shortly after being elected president of the ANC atthe end of 2007 for alleged bribery in connection with a South African armsdeal.
An appeals court Monday upheld a National Directorate ofPublic Prosecutions' application to appeal a ruling which had freed the ANCpresidential candidate from the lengthy prosecution they had been working onagainst him. The appeals court judge overturned an earlier court ruling whichdismissed graft charges against Zuma, saying the lower court judge oversteppedhis authority.