Being Jacob Zuma’s son has many, many perks.

There’s all the money, there’s all the dodgy business deals that come your way, and then there’s the fact that you can kind of get away with murder.

You may recall that Duduzane Zuma was involved in a fatal car accident a few years back, the details of which were front page news for a few weeks.

Things worsened for Zuma junior in December 2014, when Randburg Magistrate Lalitha Chetty ruled that he was negligent when the Porsche he was driving smashed into a taxi in Sandton.

Two women in the taxi died, although one death was ruled to be caused by natural causes. Zuma claimed that his Porsche had hit a puddle of water, but the judge was having none of it.

More details via Business Day:

Chetty found ” the death of the deceased Phumzile Dube was prima facie brought about by the negligent act of suspect 2, Mr Zuma.”

“He failed to conduct himself in a reasonable manner under the circumstances and adverse weather conditions,” she said.

Chetty rejected Zuma’s defence that his car had “aquaplaned” in water as he had admitted to speeding up to overtake a car that was splashing water on the windscreen of his low-slung Porsche.

She said he should have slowed down taking into account the heavy rain falling at the time of the crash.

What happened next? Bugger all, as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) quietly let him off the hook. They didn’t even publicly announce their decision, the details of which have only come to light during the ongoing #GuptaLeaks investigation:

Leaked e-mails revealed that on August 18 2015 a notification was sent to Zuma’s lawyer, Gary Mazaham, from the NPA informing Zuma the NPA would not be prosecuting him criminally.

“I decline to prosecute. There are no prospects of a successful prosecution,” it read.

David Maree, the advocate who represented Dube’s family, told The Times last week that he was surprised at the NPA’s decision not to prosecute.

“My understanding was from a law point of view, when someone is responsible for a death or an accident, then the next procedure would be a criminal matter that would follow against the person. But like I said, it was to my surprise the NPA made a decision and said they would not prosecute the matter,” Maree said.

An NPA source close to the case last week echoed Maree, saying they were surprised by the decision not to prosecute because it was “clear that Zuma should have been prosecuted for his negligence”.

“Based on this judgment, the families of the affected parties can sue Zuma for millions as this is a winnable case in a criminal court,” the source stated.

NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku trotted out the same line when quizzed this week – they declined to prosecute because they believed they could not secure a conviction.

Oh, one last thing:

Mfaku also confirmed the original accident sketch and statement given by Zuma to Sandton police that disappeared before the inquest has not been traced to this day.

The circus rolls on.

[source:businessday]