Riyaz Patel
The KwaZulu-Natal High Court has dismissed Jacob Zuma’s application for a permanent stay of prosecution relating to the multi-billion rand arms deal, opening the door for the former president to be tried on 18 charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering.
The High Court sitting in Pietermaritzburg handed down judgment Friday in the stay of prosecution application lodged by Zuma and his co-accused, French arms dealer Thales.
The matter is set down for trial from October 15.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) argued that Zuma’s legal teams had employed every conceivable trick in the book to delay the matter.
The NPA also submitted that extraneous litigation surrounding the case – including a successful Democratic Alliance (DA) court bid which secured the release of the so-called ‘spy tapes‘ – had delayed the trial for years.
The DA, in welcoming the court’s decision, said Zuma has a case to answer to. “We have been at the forefront of the fight to make sure that he is not allowed to escape accountability, despite his best attempts to interfere with the workings of the National Prosecuting Authority,” DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach said.
Zuma’s legal team had argued that the charges against the former president was politically motivated, and the delays were caused by the NPA’s decision to twice drop the charges.
The charges were reinstated by a High Court order last year.
Zuma attempted to use the ‘spy tapes’ to argue that he was a victim of a grand conspiracy.
The 18 charges against Zuma date back to 2005 and relate to 783 payments, totalling just over R4mn, which Zuma received from his then-financial adviser Schabir Shaik and his Nkobi group of companies between 1996 and 2005.
Shaik was found guilty in 2005 of fraud and corruption for the same transactions, which led many to believe Zuma, then the deputy president, would suffer the same fate.
Indeed, he was fired by then-president Thabo Mbeki, but executed a stunning comeback to secure the ANC presidency, and subsequently the SA Presidency, at the party’s Polokwane conference in 2007.
Thales, which was awarded significant portions of the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal, also sought similar relief from the court in May.
Thales said in a statement Friday that it has noted the high court’s decision and is in the process of reviewing the judgment with its legal team after which it will assess its legal options.
Zuma’s application was dismissed with costs.
“We are encouraged by the ruling of the court to believe that Zuma will eventually have to face his day in court,” Breytenbach said.
