DA gets militant about Shaik pardon
The Democratic Alliance says it has confirmation, at long last, that Schabir Shaik has applied for a presidential pardon. A pardon that will come from the self-same Jacob Zuma with whom Shaik was found to have had a corrupt relationship.This is hours after the DA accused Jeff Radebe of everything (just) short of lying in answering a parliamentary question on the issue, its first attempt at putting the application on the record.The application was apparently made in April 2008 and not yet decided on.This could well become (or be made) a constitutional issue. The President has very wide powers to grant pardons as he fancies, but should he recuse himself in this case? If Shaik's medical parole wasn't just smoke and mirrors then he shouldn't live long enough for the Constitutional Court to express a meaningful opinion, but we'd sure like to know.
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