NPA misses deadline in Zuma corruption case
Zuma’s lawyers are furious, saying the National Prosecuting Authority is just buying itself time
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has missed its court-ordered deadline to explain why former president Jacob Zuma must go on trial for corruption — and Zuma’s lawyers are fuming. The state was due to file an answer to Zuma’s application for a permanent stay of prosecution on Friday, but wrote to his attorney Daniel Mantsha on February 21 to say the prosecutors need until March 11 to do so. Apart from arguing that the case should be stopped because of the NPA’s “undue delays” in both charging him and putting him on trial, Zuma insists the case against him has been irrevocably tainted by political interference and prosecutorial irregularities. While Zuma’s application runs into thousands of pages, prosecutor Billy Downer initially expressed confidence that the state would be able to address the accusations leveled against it by Zuma within a month. While the NPA has not responded to requests as to why it hasn’t met its court deadline, the delay comes after prosecutors filed an...
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