Time to get on with JZ’s case

EMBATTLED national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) is expected to announce his decision on whether he will charge former president Jacob Zuma or not. Zuma has a litany of charges related to fraud and corruption hanging over his head.

The issue of the controversial withdrawal of the Zuma charges has been in the various courts since 2009.

Finally on Wednesday the Constitutional Court paved the way for Adv Shaun Abrahams to make the announcement which was delayed by an application by the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac). Casac wanted to stop Abrahams from making the announcement, arguing that the Constitutional Court has to first decide whether Abrahams would remain as the NDPP. This followed another decision by the North Gauteng High Court which set aside Abrahams’ appointment.

Basically Casac does not believe that Abrahams is suitable to make the decision given the North Gauteng High Court ruling. However the Constitutional Court felt that the matter was not urgent and dismissed the application.

The National Prosecuting Authority has said that Abrahams is ready to announce his decision but will first inform the affected parties, including Zuma. This decision is long overdue and the delays on the Zuma case has cost the taxpayer millions of rands in legal fees.

In parliament, during a questions and answer session, President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed that the state had spent R15.3-million on Zuma’s legal fees between 2006 and 2009. Ramaphosa also sought to allay the fears of MPs by telling them that Zuma had committed to repay taxpayers’ money if he lost the corruption case.

But the R15.3-million is a conservative calculation as it solely relates to cases linked to the decision to withdraw the initial charges against Zuma. However, Zuma has been in and out of court since he took the high office in 2009 – for Nkandla and other cases. EFF leader Julius Malema estimates the cost of Zuma’s legal fees to the taxpayer, to date, to be about R64-million.

This is plausible as Zuma challenged every decision that went against him, regardless of his chances of success.

Ramaphosa’s assurance is cold comfort considering that Zuma has been shown to be incapable of managing his finances. This is the same man who even relied on his corrupt former financial adviser Shabir Shaik for R10 to have his car washed.

This is the same Zuma who relied on a VBS Mutual Bank loan to pay the R7-million that was billed for his personal account in relation to upgrades at Nkandla.

How on earth will he be able to repay R15million, let alone R64-million?

He is no longer useful to his equally embattled benefactors, the corrupt Gupta brothers. So where will he get the money?

The reality is that we will never recover the millions wasted on Zuma. Not only did he run down our country and wreck our economy, but he has also cost us a lot of money while making his lawyers rich in the process.

The sooner his court case gets under way the better.