Discussions contained on secretly recorded phone calls, including conversations between former prosecutions boss Bulelani Ngcuka and Scorpions chief Leonard McCarthy, commonly referred as the spy tapes, were insignificant, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Tuesday.

“What appears is that the decision of (then acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, Mokotedi) Mpshe, it was not a reasoned decision. We submit that at that stage, it wasn’t a rational decision backed by any reasons,” Advocate Sean Rosenberg, for the Democratic Alliance, said in court.

“It was a decision which reflected his (Mpshe) own sense of betrayal and anger and outrage over McCarthy’s conduct. We will submit that as at April 2009, unreasonable and impulsive as it was, it was not a rational decision. The reasons were worked out and developed and articulated in the press announcement of April 6 2009.”

Three judges of the North Gauteng High Court, led by Judge Aubrey Ledwaba, are hearing the opposition Democratic Alliance’s application to set aside the National Prosecuting Authority’s decision in April 2009 to drop 738 charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering against Zuma.

Rosenberg told the court that reasons given by Mpshe for withdrawing the charges against Zuma in the press briefing of April 6 2009, represented his own reasoning.

“The reasons … had not been formally considered in any particular way on April 1, 2009 – other than that there was a sense of outrage and betrayal. We say that the decision in those circumstances, made prior to consulting or getting further information from possibly involved parties such as Mr McCarthy was taken prematurely and impulsively.”

Rosenberg said Mpshe’s decision to discontinue the prosecution of President Zuma was unwarranted.

“The decision was fundamentally irrational,” said Rosenberg.

The opposition party has approached the courts, as part of a bid to have fraud and corruption charges reinstated against Zuma.

On Monday, on the eve of the start of the current court process, the Presidency had defended the decision by the NDPP as “rational”.

In a statement issued late on Monday night, the Presidency said: “The Court Application has been relentlessly pursued over a period of some seven years and seeks to review and set aside the NDPP’s decision. The President has always contended that the court proceedings are an abuse of process by a political party in order to advance a political agenda.”

“Through his submissions to the High Court, President Zuma will maintain that the decision of the NDPP was rationally derived at, as evidenced by the reasons advanced and accordingly, will withstand any scrutiny.”

The charges stemmed from the country’s 1999 arms deal and the decision by then acting NPA head Mpshe to withdraw these, paved the way for Zuma’s election as president the following month.

The DA went to court soon after, but the actual review has been more than six years in the coming because of a lengthy case within a case to secure the release of the so-called spytapes, wiretaps of phone calls Mpshe said indicated that the timing of the charges was manipulated by supporters of former president Thabo Mbeki.