Snakes alive! An appeal against the Zuma decision?

Beeld this morning confirms that the NPA is currently weighing up an appeal against the decision in favour of Jacob Zuma handed down in Pietermaritzburg on Friday. The judgement, which will set the scene for many interesting tripartite alliance meetings this week, rendered the charges against the ANC president invalid.

Of course, as the unnamed source from the NPA confirms, an appeal is but one of many options the authority will consider once it has studied the judgement.

In terms of timing, regardless of which avenue the NPA elects to go down, Zuma is on course to become the third president of the multiracial Republic of South Africa. If the NPA appeals and succeeds, by the time a trial date is set the ANC leader should be well into his first term as national president.

If the NPA elects to cure the procedural defect, it will take months before it is are able to charge Zuma again.

The political explosion from Judge Nicholson’s decision, on the other hand, could result in a very positive or negative week, depending on how it is handled by the ANC.

If it should continue calling for unity, lose the war talk, and demand discipline and respect for the country and the party, we are in for a good week. This must be in tandem with respect being shown to President Thabo Mbeki regardless of what decisions the party takes this week. A united party that shows discipline and acknowledges its mistakes in terms of the criminal justice system and the judiciary will go a long way to lifting the country.

In this regard Zuma has to show he is the boss and clamp down immediately on any suggestions of revenge or dying for him. In addition he must now give his full support to the government even while he is setting out the approach to be adopted for the changeover. That government is made up of members of the ANC.

If, on the other hand, it’s more dying for Zuma (perhaps we should open the Suicide National Park where those who make this claim are forced to carry it out), revenge politics with everyone sniping at the president and nothing about the policies for the next election, then I’m afraid it’s the same old, same old.

Just one point in passing — Judge Nicholson used a fishy theme in his judgement. It is accordingly very unfair for the ANC president now to go off at a tangent and start using reptiles. I mean, what is the point of us sifting through mountains of notes on fish if they’re just going to switch midstream? Next they’ll be on about mammals in submarines and we’ll have to burn all these notes about crocodiles!

Let’s just agree to go with reptiles — just think, at 2010 we can have Pele with a T-shirt that says: “My snake has reptile dysfunction”.

Or is that a bit sssstrange?