The secret illegal recordings of telephonic conversations between NPA manager Leornard McCarthy, president Thabo Mbeki and businessman Bulelani Ncquka in 2007 is a test for our jurisprudence. The question that is going to seek an answer from the court is whether prosecutor-general Mokotedi Mpshe was justified to use the tapes as the basis for declining to prosecute - despite the fact that the state had a prima facie case to proceed with the trial. At the moment illegal taps and evidence obtained by illegal means in violation of an accused rights cannot be used against him in court. A related question is whether McCarthy and Ronnie Kasrils were not entitled to have regard to the potential of political instability when they discussed whether to time the arraignment of the accused before or after the Polokwane conference, in view of threats of violence from many of the supporters of the accused in State v Zuma. Indeed, it was natural and unavoidable to brief the head of state about the security threat posed by the trial..... Importantly, the discussions were peripheral and had nothing to do with the substantive issues. Indeed, the prosecutions team Billy Downer, Willie Hoffmyer and Wim Trengove as well as Mpshe himself were not party to those at all and were not even aware about them. It is going to be an interesting legal argument
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 08:30:56 +0000
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