Jaob Zuma to be prosecuted on corruption charges
Not long ago, South Africa’s Jacob Zuma seemed untouchable, but the corruption case he escaped on the eve of the 2009 parliamentary election resurfaced Friday as prosecutors reinstated charges against the former president and gave new life to a case that has haunted him for years.
Zuma’s party, the African National Congress, went on to win the 2009 elections and voted him in as president, ushering in nearly nine years of chaotic governance and corruption.
He was ousted by his party last month as president, and state prosecutors on Friday announced that charges against Zuma, relating to a $2.5-billion arms deal in the late 1990s, would be reinstated.
National prosecutions chief Shaun Abrahams said the charges against Zuma had a reasonable chance of succeeding. The former leader faces 16 criminal counts related to 783 payments that have been challenged as corrupt. Abrahams said Zuma denies wrongdoing.
Friday’s announcement follows more than a decade of controversy over the arms deal and many twists along the way — including a court case brought by the opposition Democratic Alliance contesting the 2009 decision by state prosecutors to drop the charges.
Some saw the ANC’s decision to elect Zuma as its party president in 2007 — despite swirling allegations of corruption against him — as a misstep that led to years of poor governance, political patronage and deepening corruption.
As president, Zuma was criticized for allowing a powerful business family, the Guptas, to land government deals and contracts benefiting their businesses. The Guptas boasted they had the power the hire and fire ministers, according to ANC lawmakers who said they were offered posts and bribes in return for favoring Gupta business interests.
