A thorny tangle

Zuma’s administration has spawned a host of substantial legal challenges, writes Phillip de Wet

This week the Passenger Rail Agency, a state organ, went to court to try to force another state organ, the Hawks, to investigate alleged corruption in its tenders — just the kind of action civil society organisations have been eyeing in other alleged cases of corruption.

And President Jacob Zuma went to court to argue that a demand that he start a state capture inquiry be held back until he can argue, separately, that he cannot be told how to constitute a state capture inquiry.

Zuma backed up his application by citing as a precedent last year’s Constitutional

Court judgment on Nkandla, the one that went so spectacularly against him. This was the second time in two weeks

Zuma has cited the Nkandla case; in an unrelated matter last week he used it to bolster an argument about why he should not face corruption charges again.

But that is just the tip of a fast-growing iceberg. Zuma’s administration has spawned a number of legal challenges that question his integrity, the rationality of some of his decisions and his choice in people to lead key institutions, including state-owned enterprises.

These are the 13 most important cases the government is dealing with.