The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was "between a rock and a hard place" when the 783 charges of corruption, racketeering and fraud against President Jacob Zuma were dropped, his lawyers said on Tuesday. Zuma said in the heads of arguments filed at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein that the NPA was at that stage being dictated to by politicians and the state as to whether to prosecute or not. Zuma is appealing against a judgment by the High Court in Pretoria in 2016 that the decision by then acting national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) Mokotedi Mpshe to drop the charges against him was irrational. "The zero tolerance pronounced by Mpshe for politically motivated and driven exercises of prosecutorial powers starting with Zuma is hardly an irrational response," Zuma said. He said the assessment by the court that the decision by Mpshe was irrational was an "unsound" assessment and Mpshe’s decision was an honest one taken after investigation. "The sinister and/...
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