South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has announced that the country’s former president Jacob Zuma would be facing corruption charges and stand trial subsequently.
The NPA head Shaun Abrahams made the announcement on Friday stating that Mr. Zuma would face prosecution for 18 charges of corruption.
The charges relate to 783 questionable payments Zuma allegedly received in connection with the controversial multi-billion rand arms deal.
“I am of the view that there are reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution of Mr Zuma,” Abrahams said adding that he has notified Zuma on his decision.
Jacob Zuma according to the NPA boss would be facing charges including 1 count of racketeering, 2 counts of money laundering and 12 counts of fraud.
Mr Zuma’s plea for the charges be dropped was rejected by the South African state prosecutors.
Zuma’s corruption charges were first filed against him in 2005 when his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was jailed for fraud and corruption.
Mr Zuma went on trial in 2006 but the case collapsed when the prosecution said it was not ready to proceed more than a year after he was charged.
South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in 2009 controversially dropped the charges before Mr. Zuma became president.
Following series of agitations from Zuma’s critics and political opponents South Africa’s High Court reinstated the charges in 2016 and Mr Zuma lost a Supreme Court appeal to overturn them.
Jacob Zuma resigned last month after his party the African National Congress (ANC) decided to recall him days before the parliament was due to debate a motion of no confidence in him.
Source: Africafeeds.com
