FIVE judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal have laid it on the line: the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions has behaved in the SpyTapes fiasco in a manner that is not worthy of the office. The court added, “Such conduct undermines the esteem in which the office of the NDPP ought to be held by the citizenry of this country.”

The judges were ruling in their decision, delivered today, on the continuing debacle over the failure by the office of the president to hand over certain key tape recordings, despite being ordered to do so by several courts.

The judgment also criticised President Jacob Zuma’s legal advisers for their strategies in the matter and pointed out that the tapes can, ‘by no stretch of the imagination’, be said to contain Zuma’s confidential discussions.

Here’s the judgment in full:

Zuma v DA and Others