I think it is fantastic that the spy tapes are finally in the hands of the DA.  These are the tapes, on the basis of which charges against Jacob Zuma were dropped, by the then Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, Mokotedi Mpshe, on the basis that they allegedly show political interference. The interviews with people at the time and the comments that we are getting from the DA who cannot release those transcripts, until such time as one would imagine the discovery process in the review litigation, seem to indicate that there was not an actual basis in those transcripts for Mpshe to take the decision he did.  

I don’t know if anything will ever come of it, because even if the DA succeeds with every part of their case, and eventually Zuma is charged, one would not be surprised to see the next President of South Africa giving Zuma a Presidential pardon, but I am just speculating.  The reality of the matter is we are going to see, sooner or later, and I would speculate that it will be in a time frame of 6 to 12 months, what these transcripts said, and whether or not there was a basis to withdraw the charges against President Zuma as a result of political interference.  Is it going to be real political interference, or is it simply going to be people saying that it would be a very bad time to charge Jacob Zuma before the Polokwane meeting of the ANC, because it would have led to riots – which is what some people allege what the conversations are about?  In other words, simply saying, don’t charge him before the December ANC conference at the time, because it is going to cause political instability in South Africa and if you are going to charge him, please just wait until after the ANC conference, which one could hardly describe as being political interference.   The transcripts will reveal all and quite frankly, as most have said, if there was something dramatic on the tapes, one cannot imagine the President and his legal advisors would have put up such a fight that they had to go back to the SCA twice to avoid releasing those tapes to the DA.  The legal strategy, other than possibly just playing for time, would seem to suggest that there is nothing of real consequence in the transcripts that is so damaging to the case against Jacob Zuma that would have justified the case being withdrawn.