ARROGANCE AND CONTRIVANCE: GAMING THE SYSTEM

The NPA and President Zuma's application for leave to appeal the High Court's ruling that Zuma should face charges in a earlier dropped indictment was recently argued.  Judgment has been reserved.

There is every expectation leave to appeal will be refused inasmuch as the unanimous full court decision was legally sound in fact and law.  Why then did Zuma and the NPA seek leave to appeal?

From Zuma's perspective one can understand his decision -  avoidance at all costs of reinstatement of criminal charges for particularly serious crimes.

For the NPA the decision to seek leave to appeal follows a pattern uniformly employed by government and parastatals who engage in frivolous lawsuits with no expectation of success.  One merely has to recall the number of recent high profile cases government has lost.

Why then does government persist in engaging in ever-increasing frivolous and costly lawsuits?   Primarily arrogance and contrived legal advice -  advice that government lawyers dish up to simply satisfy their political bosses. The entire system from the NPA to the Office of the Chief Law Advisor is politicised and panders to politicians and their benightedness.

The politicisation problem has not gone unnoticed.  A study by the Public Service Commission has addressed it. Whether its findings will be acted upon remains to be seen.  Probably not, and certainly not from those in private practice .  The status quo is a bonanza for them.  Their laughter can be heard all the way to the bank!