SOUTH AFRICA:The long-simmering controversy over suspicions that Deputy President Jacob Zuma solicited a protection fee of at least 500,000 rand from a French armaments company took a decisive turn at the weekend when the Director of Public Prosecutions announced that Mr Zuma would not be prosecuted although there was a "prima facie case of corruption" against him.
Justifying the decision, the DPP, Mr Bulelani Ngcuka, said, "We have concluded that our prospects of success are not strong enough". His explanation met with a chorus of criticism from opposition parties that conveyed their suspicion that Mr Ngucka, a former African National Congress senator, had succumbed to pressure from the ruling ANC.
The decision came in the wake of intense conflict within the ANC over the investigation into Mr Zuma's financial affairs in general and his relationship with a businessman, Mr Schabir Shaik, whose company, Nkobi Holdings, benefited from South Africa's controversial multi-billion rand arms deal with Thales, a French armaments company.
Mr Zuma complained publicly that the investigation by the elite Scorpions investigation unit had been conducted in a manner that was prejudicial to him. He protested that the Scorpions had failed to inform him of the precise nature of the allegations under investigation and had leaked information to the media.
The ANC secretary-general, Mr Kgalema Motlanthe, backed Mr Zuma and accused Mr Ngcuka of conducting the investigation as though he were directing a Hollywood film.
For his part, Mr Ngcuka accused unnamed "comrade criminals" of conducting a smear campaign against him in an attempt to unnerve him into halting the investigation into Mr Zuma.