Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial postponed to June due to coronavirus

 

 

A corruption trial involving South African former president Jacob Zuma, due to resume this week, has been postponed to June because of the coronavirus outbreak, the state prosecutor said Monday.

Zuma is alleged to have taken bribes of four million rand (around $214,000) related to a $3.4 billion arms deal with French aerospace and defence giant Thales in 1999, when he was deputy president.

He was scheduled to appear in court to answer the corruption charges on May 6.

But the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Monday announced that the matter had been “postponed in absentia” to June 23.

“This is due to the COVID-19 lockdown travel and court appearance restrictions,” the NPA said in an emailed statement.

South Africa shuttered its borders shortly after detecting its first case of COVID-19 in March.

 

The country is gradually easing a strict five-week nationwide lockdown meant to halt the spread of coronavirus, which has infected over 6,700 people and killed at least 131.

Zuma faces 16 charges of fraud, graft, and racketeering relating to the purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats, and military equipment.

He was forced to step down in 2018 by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) after a nine-year reign marked by corruption allegations and dwindling popularity.

In February, the 78-year-old ex-president was slapped with an arrest warrant after he failed to appear in a high court for a pre-trial hearing while he was undergoing medical treatment in Cuba.

Zuma had recently abandoned several attempts to halt the looming corruption trial, claiming his “innocence (would be) demonstrated for all to see”.

 

[AFP]

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South African court issues Jacob Zuma arrest warrant in corruption trial, rejects former president's 'sick note'

Former South African president Jacob Zuma's lawyer presented a sick note to the court.(Reuters: Mike Hutchings)

A South African court has issued an arrest warrant for former president Jacob Zuma, after he skipped court on grounds of needing medical treatment, before the warrant was stayed until his corruption trial resumes on May 6.

Mr Zuma's lawyer presented the judge with a sick note from what he said was a military hospital, but Judge Dhaya Pillay questioned whether the note was valid, as there was no medical number showing if and where the doctor was certified.

"I don't even know if [he] … is a doctor. There is … nothing to suggest that he is," she said, before issuing the warrant.

The former leader is on trial on 18 charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering relating to a $2 billion arms deal with French defence firm Thales in 1999, when Mr Zuma was deputy president.

He rejects the allegations as a politically motivated witch-hunt.

Dan Mantsha, Mr Zuma's lawyer, said that Mr Zuma was abroad for medical treatment, without saying where. Local media have suggested he is in Cuba, although it was not immediately possible to verify this.

Ms Pillay concluded that the note was insufficient to excuse Mr Zuma from appearing for the trial, but gave him until it resumes on May 6 to turn up before the warrant kicks in.

Mr Zuma, president from 2009—2018, had previously applied for a permanent stay of prosecution but the court in Pietermaritzburg threw out his appeal in November.

He is accused of accepting 500,000 rand ($50,253) annually from Thales in 1999, in exchange for protecting the company from an investigation into the deal.

Thales, known as Thompson-CSF at the time, has said it had no knowledge of any transgressions by any of its employees in relation to the award of the contracts.

The National Prosecuting Authority initially filed the charges against Mr Zuma a decade ago but set them aside shortly before he successfully ran for president in 2009.

Following appeals and lobbying by opposition parties, the NPA reinstated the charges in March 2018.

Ms Pillay also accepted an application by the company on Tuesday to be represented by lawyer Barry Roux, who defended Paralympian athlete Oscar Pistorius over the 2013 murder of his girlfriend.

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Delay in Jacob Zuma's case as former president plans appeal

Ex-South African president to appeal court ruling to deny him permanent stay of prosecution on corruption charges.

By Victoria Schneider

The ruling African National Congress party forced Jacob Zuma to resign as president last year after a nine-year reign marred by corruption allegations [Michele Spatar/Reuters]

Pietermaritzburg, South Africa - A long-awaited corruption trial against former South African President Jacob Zuma has been postponed until next year after his legal team said it would appeal an earlier court decision to proceed with his prosecution on charges related to an arms deal.

"Mr Zuma intends to exercise the full extent of his constitutional right which is the right to appeal," his lawyer Thabani Masuku said in his address to the judge in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday.

On Friday, the same court had dismissed Zuma's application for a permanent stay of prosecution lodged earlier this year.

Zuma has 15 days to submit an explanation as to why the prosecution should not be continued. The application will be heard on November 22.

Advocate Billy Downer, speaking on behalf of the state, said: "The state will obviously be opposing these applications."

He suggested April as the new date for the trial in which Zuma has to respond to 16 charges of fraud, money laundering and racketeering related to the procurement of weaponry from European companies in the late 1990s, commonly known as the Arms Deal. The former president denies any wrongdoing.

Downer announced that the earliest date for the pre-trial will be February 4, adding that the state "will set in motion immediately the minutes for a full process of pre-trial".

A new version of the forensic report regarding the matter had been filed to the judiciary, as well as the co-accused, French arms company Thales.

Directly after the hearing, a cheerful and relaxed Zuma addressed a few hundred supporters who had gathered outside the court building.

"We will come back, we will come back, we will come back," he told the dancing and cheering crowd, referring to his intention to lodge an appeal.

Long-running saga

Zuma was first indicted with alleged corruption charges in connection with the procurement of arms from various European manufacturers, including Thales, in 2005.

The allegations against him comprise 783 dubious payments he allegedly received between 1996 and 2005 through his then-financial adviser Shabir Shaik, who was sentenced to 15 years in jail in 2005 for his part in the transactions. 

Zuma, despite being fired as vice president in 2007 by then-President Thabo Mbeki as a result of the accusations, was cleared of all charges by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in 2009.

The bribe money that allegedly flowed into Zuma's pockets during that period totalled four million rand ($269,169) and was paid in exchange for his service to shield Thales from corruption investigations relating to their fraudulent involvement in the arms deal.

Billy Downer, centre, said the state would oppose any appeal made by Zuma's team [Michele Spatari/Reuters]

After repeatedly challenging the prosecutors, Zuma and Thales have managed to delay the day of trial for years until Friday, when the court dismissed the decision to set aside the charges in 2009 as "flawed".

That ruling evoked hopes among opposition parties and anti-corruption campaigners that the trial was finally due to commence in a country that has long struggled with allegations of state capture and structural corruption. It was widely received as a milestone for the country to finally make a stance against corruption.

"One of the challenges we see in government is that people's courage to speak up against corruption is undermined by the fact that there are no consequences," said Dadisai Taderera, country director of the Accountability Lab South Africa, a global organisation promoting integrity among citizens. 

"There have only been two cases in South Africa where high ranking politicians were prosecuted," she said. "Other than that," she added, "there is a general feeling from the general public that there is impunity."

"The danger is now that it sends the message that if you have resources you can afford to evade justice."

While organisations fighting corruption and promoting accountability, such as the Accountability Lab, see a further delay as a threat to the credibility of the South African court system, Zuma's supporters reinforced their support and insisted that the accusations form part of a conspiracy against the former president led by external infiltrators. 

"Our judiciary was captured," said Cijimpi, a Zuma supporter dressed in a yellow shirt sporting the logo of Zuma's African National Congress (ANC), after the court session. 

"This is a vendetta against Zuma to bring him down."

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Zuma trial: 'We are dealing with the godfather of South African politics'

Many South Africans met the news that Jacob Zuma is scheduled to stand next week on 15 October, with disbelief.

There have after all been years of delays in bringing the case to court - the disgraced former president faces charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering relating to payments from French arms company Thales made to him through his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik, who was convicted in 2005.

On Friday, a full bench of the KwaZulu-Natal High Court found that Zuma and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) were equally complicit in causing the delay.

The court dismissed the application for a permanent stay in prosecution by the former president and co-accused Thales.

CapeTalk's Abongile Nzelenzele Dube gets the input of Xolani Dube, political analyst with the Xubera Institute of Research and Development.

Related

Zuma to stand trial on corruption charges relating to $2.5bn arms deal

Dube describes Zuma as the "godfather" of local politics, produced and until recently, protected by the ANC.

There is always one godfather that African politics produces and in our country, we have produced JZ and fortunately or unfortunately, we have produced a very sophisticated godfather in our politics.

— Xolani Dube, Political analyst - Xubera Institute for Research and Development

The question on everyone's lips - will Zuma appeal? And does he have the funds to do so?

Dube has a scathing response:

In South Africa we have lots of poor people but we are supposed to always go to court and finance their (politicians') cases.

 — Xolani Dube, Political analyst - Xubera Institute for Research and Development

If he (Zuma) is telling us that he's got no money it's clearly an indication that South African politicians, they are taking us for a ride to say we have to finance even their ways of fighting against the allegations of their ill-deeds, against us!

 — Xolani Dube, Political analyst - Xubera Institute for Research and Development

Dube goes on to say that, in fact, this trial is not about Jacob Zuma the individual, but about the organisation of the ANC which allowed him to become president and stay in power.

Bear in mind the people who are protecting this individual, the people who made this individual so powerful is the organisation that is in power.

— Xolani Dube, Political analyst - Xubera Institute for Research and Development

If Jacob Zuma is going to trial, or to jail, here it is about the image, the morality, the ethics of the ANC. Because Zuma, he's the representative of the whole.

 — Xolani Dube, Political analyst - Xubera Institute for Research and Development

According to Dube, South Africans need to have a conversation about their relationship with the ruling party. That can only be effective however, if there is a discussion first about the country's electoral system.

If we have that discourse it will also mean a discourse that says, look the electoral system is very disempowering because South Africans have been waiting for justice for the past 15 years, or ten years and we are not even sure that Jacob Zuma, come Tuesday, is not going to appeal because he's a man of Stalingrad approach.

 — Xolani Dube - Political Analyst with Xubera Institute of Research and Development.

If we can have that conversation, that's also how we can protect these institutions that need to mete out justice against those who do evil things in our society.

 — Xolani Dube - Political Analyst with Xubera Institute of Research and Development.

We must not be excited because that would show that we are vulnerable in that we have to say, this organisation can protect someone who's rogue and even make that individual a president which means that they can also bring us someone else who is rogue and after ten years they can say that person was not fit.

 — Xolani Dube, Political analyst - Xubera Institute for Research and Development

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