Zuma unlikely to get a fair trial in SA – MKMVA

Niehaus says Zuma is innocent until he is proven guilty by a court of law.

Carl Niehaus during the uMkhonto WeSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) 5th National Conference held at the Birchwood conference center in Boksburg, 9 June 2017. Picture: Neil McCartney

The Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) on Saturday noted the decision by the NPA to prosecute Jacob Zuma on corruption charges over the arms deal scandal in the late 1990s. However, the MKMVA says it was unlikely that the former president would get a fair trial in the country.

MKMVA national spokesperson Carl Niehaus said in a statement that even though they concurred with the ANC’s confidence in the judiciary, it would be amiss for them not to raise their “serious and well considered concern whether it will be possible Zuma to receive a fair and unbiased trial in the context of the decades long and vicious personal and politically motivated attacks that have been launched against him in public and by the mainstream media.”

Niehaus, a member of the ANC’s national executive committee, said Zuma is innocent until he is proven guilty by a court of law. He said the MKMVA believed that judges and citizens had been influenced by an “avalanche of negative publicity” directed at Zuma.

“This must be a matter of genuine concern because there can be no doubt that every South African citizen – including all our judges – have been bombarded and influenced by the avalanche of negative publicity, character assassination and kangaroo courts that been conducted against Comrade Zuma.

“Professional and fair as our justice system strives to be, the judiciary cannot escape this harsh reality and will have to face it head-on,” he said.

The MKMVA has also condemned the conduct of DA leader Mmusi Maimane after he popped champagne in Pretoria in celebration of the announcement on Friday.

Niehaus said citizens should reject the DA’s antics with the disdain that it deserved. He also reiterated the call by the ANC on all South Africans to afford the NPA space to conduct its work unhindered.

“We could not but notice with disgust the infantile behaviour of the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), Mr Mmusi Maimane, who was yesterday clowning with popping champagne bottles outside the offices of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), toasting his and his party’s utter disdain for any sober and fair legal process.”

“The Democratic Alliance, and all others who are behaving similarly, should be ashamed of themselves for having become nothing else but a frenzied lynch mob,” Niehaus said.

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