South Africa

CORRUPTION CASE

Court lashes Jacob Zuma’s language and finds no merits in his appeal argument

Former President Jacob Zuma on the second day appearing at the High Court in Pietermaritzburg today. He's facing charges of racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud relating to the 1999 arms deal. Picture: MotshwarI Mofokeng/African News Agency(ANA)/Pool

In yet another blow to Jacob Zuma, the KwaZulu-Natal High Court has dismissed his request to appeal the court's decision denying him a permanent stay of prosecution for arms deal-related charges. The former president was also accused for making comments that could bring the justice system into disrepute.

Former president Jacob Zuma’s attempts to have arms deal-related charges thrown out of court was once again rejected on Friday as the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg dismissed his application for leave to appeal an earlier judgment.

In October, a full bench of the court dismissed his permanent stay of prosecution application to have charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering dropped, saying that the seriousness of the offences far outweighed any prejudices Zuma might face due to the 15-year delay in prosecution.

Zuma has been charged alongside French arms company Thales, which is accused of bribing him to provide protection from investigations into its contacts in the multi-billion rand arms deal.

On Friday, the high court dismissed Zuma and Thales’s applications to appeal the judgment rejecting their stay of prosecution applications. Both parties were ordered to pay the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) legal costs.

A week ago, Zuma’s legal representative Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane argued that the court had made errors in law when rejecting the stay of prosecution application. He said the court should have weighed the seriousness of the charges with the alleged political interference in bringing Zuma’s case to court.

During his stay of prosecution application, Zuma argued that the case should be dropped because the lengthy delay in prosecution had violated his right to a fair trial. He also claimed political interference by former president Thabo Mbeki’s administration and collusion between NPA and Scorpions leaders had violated his constitutional rights and undermined the case against him.

Sikhakhane repeated many of the same arguments in the application to appeal the failed permanent stay of prosecution and said the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) could make a different finding.

Senior prosecutor Billy Downer told the court Zuma’s appeal had no chances of success and “Mr Zuma’s continuation of his Stalingrad defence tactics is a compelling reason why the appeal should not be heard”.

Rejecting Zuma’s appeal application means the high court found he would have no reasonable chances of success in the SCA. Friday’s court judgment found no merits in Zuma’s arguments.

The three judges, Jerome Mnguni, Esther Steyn and Poyo Dlwati, also criticised the language Zuma used in the affidavit he submitted in his leave to appeal application, which Sikhakhane apologised for during the hearing.

They said Zuma’s comments “do not belong in a proper court process”.

Without diverting our focus from the issues in this application, we deem it necessary to voice our displeasure on the disrespectful manner in which this court was addressed in Mr Zuma’s notice of application for leave to appeal.

In our view, comments or allegations that are scandalous or vexatious to the court ought to be avoided at all costs, as they can bring the administration of justice into disrepute. They can also undermine the public’s confidence in the courts and disturb the moral authority of judicial process,” reads the judgment.

It continues: “In our view, comments or allegations that are scandalous or vexatious to the court ought to be avoided at all costs, as they can bring the administration of justice into disrepute. They can also undermine the public’s confidence in the courts and disturb the moral authority of judicial process.”

Zuma may choose to apply to the SCA directly to appeal the judgment, but the prospects of it hearing his case are unlikely after a full bench has unanimously ruled against him multiple times in the matter.

The charges relate to alleged payments Zuma received from Thales, through his financial adviser Schabir Shaik, who was convicted in 2005. The former president is accused of using his political influence to protect the company from investigations into Thales and for allegedly trying to solicit a R500,000 bribe from the company.

On multiple occasions, charges were laid and then dropped against Zuma before former NPA boss Mokotedi Mpshe decided to withdraw them in 2009. The DA spent years in court trying to have Mpshe’s decision declared irrational and the charges reinstated.

Former NPA leader Shaun Abrahams reinstated the charges in 2018 after Zuma and the NPA eventually admitted in the SCA that Mpshe’s decision was irrational.

Despite his own repeated assertion that he will welcome the opportunity to have his day in court, Mr Zuma has done everything in his power to resist being held accountable for the alleged criminal activities in which he was involved during the ‘Arms Deal’,” said DA shadow justice minister Glynnis Breytenbach in a statement on Friday.

The DA is encouraged by the ruling of the court today, as it reaffirms our belief that Jacob Zuma should eventually have to face his day in court.” DM

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.