“Italy’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday threw out a law that shields Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from prosecution while in office, paving the way for corruption proceedings to resume against him.”
This has thrown Italian politics into the kind of spin that might well be mirrored down here.
Recently Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance, blasted the acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Mokotedi Mpshe, for missing a deadline in filing the NPA’s response to the DA’s application to the High Court to review the decision to withdraw the charges against President Jacob Zuma.
Moreover Zille was less than pleased with the affidavit filed by Zuma’s attorney Michael Hulley, in response to the application, in which he stated:
“I have been advised that the incumbent State President, like the President of the United States, cannot be charged with criminal conduct (or continue to be prosecuted) during his incumbency.”
Zille’s response on Politicsweb September 18 2009 was as follows:
“Hulley is completely wrong. The South African Constitution makes this crystal clear. Section 9 (i) of the Bill of Rights proclaims that “everyone is equal before the law”. In Chapter 5, on The President and the National Executive, the President is granted no special favours or immunities for criminal conduct. The President is the same as the rest of us: if he commits a crime, he must be charged and tried.”
In truth there is no doubt that Zille is correct on this point.
So much so that many of you will recall the whole debate — prior to the election — on whether the ANC, if they got a two-thirds majority, would amend the Constitution to include a provision to that effect.
The party, and indeed Zuma, to their credit, confirmed that this would not be the case.
Italy’s Constitutional Court has spoken and the knives are out for Berlusconi.
The High Court here, sooner or later, is going to have to give a ruling on the DA’s application.
If it is upheld all sorts of permutations present themselves once again.
If it is dismissed we will have to see what the DA plan to do.
Of one thing you can be certain; the Berlusconi decision will have refocused the minds of all of those involved in these proceedings.
Abstracts do give way to reality.
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