State paid R2.3m for Zuma lawyer

THE government shelled out R2.3 million to cover the costs of President Jacob Zuma’s lawyer, Michael Hulley, in fighting the DA’s application for the release of the so- called spy tapes relating to the arms deal.

This brings the known cost of defending the matter to R3.6m, after it was revealed earlier that the state had paid R1.3m in the same case.

It was a “staggering abuse of power”, DA federal executive chairman James Selfe said yesterday. He had asked Zuma in a parliamentary question whether any private legal practitioners had been used on his behalf in the case and, if so, why the state attorney had not been used instead. In his reply yesterday, Zuma confirmed that Hulley and Associates had been paid R2.337m.

“A conflict of interest would have arisen if the state attorney represented both the National Prosecuting Authority and the president,” Zuma said. Selfe called this “sophis- try at its best. It’s extremely lucrative work for Mr Hulley,” he said, referring to an earlier reply from Zuma in which he said he had employed Hulley part-time – at R693.77 an hour.

Selfe said that R1.3m was the sum paid to the DA after it was awarded costs in a case lost by the state.

craig.dodds@inl.co.za