Cape Town, South Africa, Oct 16, 2017 / 20:36 pm America/Denver (CNA).
South Africa’s Conference of Catholic Bishops has pushed for the development of an anti-corruption court, citing the damage to the country’s morale after a long standing corruption case against President Jacob Zuma.
“We urge constitutional experts and the Law Reform Commission to guide the nation on the feasibility of establishing an anti-corruption court,” said Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley, chairman of the conference’s Justice and Peace Commission.
“When allegations of corruption hang over the head of a sitting president for this long‚ something gives way. In our case‚ the moral fiber of our nation has suffered massive damage as a result of people losing confidence in the office of the president.”
On Friday, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal upheld a 2016 ruling by the Pretoria High Court that 783 accounts of corruption could be reinstated against President Zuma.
The ruling stated that the charges should never have been dropped by the then-National Prosecutor Mokotedi Mphse. Known as the Spy Tapes case, the charges were revoked in 2009 after the phone-intercepted recordings were condemned as a political plot against Zuma’s presidential platform.