The “prove it!” challenge thrown down by former health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize on allegations of corruption against him, has an interesting echo of the arrogant demands from Jacob Zuma that he get his “day in court”.
When the wheels of justice did speed up and the former president did start getting a few days in the dock, he threw everything, and the proverbial legal kitchen sink at the prosecutorial authorities to delay having to answer the charges against him.
That, more than likely, is going to be the case with Mkhize, who will hardly need to duck and dive at all legally to avoid being arraigned before the critical end-of-year ANC elective conference, where he has thrown his hat in the ring for the position of president of the organisation.
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He will be secure in knowing that state prosecutions are not known for their speed. It was heartening, therefore, to see someone pushing back against the tide of legal time-wasting which has characterised most of the cases around state capture and corruption.
We salute prosecutor Billy Downer for insisting, as is his legal right, to have Zuma pay a R1 million security bond to the court, to cover costs in advance of his attempt to bring a private prosecution against Downer.
The prosecutor clearly knows the rules of a civil court are in his favour, especially with someone whose repeated visits to court are tending to class him as a vexatious litigant.
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Advocate Dali Mpofu, acting on behalf of suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, seems to be conducting a similar “Stalingrad defence” to that of Zuma, by applying for the recusal of MP Qubudile Dyantyi, who is chairing parliament’s Section 194 committee of inquiry into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office. We may not have electricity in South Africa, but we do seem to have plenty of time.
