Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
ZUMA TO GO ON TRIAL
State gears up to face first hurdle
THE STATE is a step closer to prosecuting former president Jacob Zuma but already faces its first hurdles, including an application for the matter to be abandoned.
Yesterday, National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shaun Abrahams reinstated 18 charges of fraud, corruption, racketeering, money laundering and tax fraud against Zuma.
The charges relate to the $2.5 billion arms deal, a years-old scandal that has returned to haunt Zuma within weeks of his fall from power.
Zuma, who was forced to resign by his party, the ANC, last month, was at the centre of the 1990s deal to buy European military kit that has cast a shadow over politics for years.
Abrahams said yesterday that Zuma’s attempts to head off the charges hanging over him for more than a decade had failed.
The 75-year-old denied all the allegations against him, Abrahams said.
“After consideration of the matter, I am of the view that there are reasonable prospects of successful prosecution of Mr Zuma on the charges listed in the indictment,” Abrahams said.
“I am of the view that a trial court would be the most appropriate forum for these issues to be ventilated and to be decided upon.”
Zuma will face charges relating to 783 instances of alleged wrongdoing, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said.
Zuma will appear in court with his co- accused Thint Holdings Southern Africa and Thint (Pty) Ltd, both represented by Joburgbased businessman Pierre Moynot. Both companies were owned by French arms manufacturer Thales.
There was no immediate comment from Zuma and it was not immediately clear when he might go to trial. Zuma was deputy president at the time of the arms deal. Schabir Shaik was found guilty and jailed in 2005 for trying to solicit bribes for Zuma from the French arms company.
Charges of fraud and corruption were filed against Zuma but then dropped by the NPA shortly before he ran for president in 2009. His opponents have since fought a legal battle to have the charges reinstated.
Zuma countered with his own legal challenges.
Abrahams said an application for the permanent stay of Zuma’s prosecution was recently filed at the Western Cape High Court by an (unnamed) NGO.
“I’ve instructed the State Attorney to brief senior counsel to oppose this application,” he said.
It has been speculated that Shaik will be an important witness in the prosecution’s case against Zuma.
It was reported last night that Shaik had been subpoenaed, however, his lawyer denied this.
Meanwhile, DA leader Mmusi Maimane is demanding Zuma fund his own legal defence, saying that the government should not add to the R15.3 million legal fees incurred by Zuma while he was president.
In September, the DA said legal action over the spy tapes alone had cost taxpayers about R30m. The tapes were clandestinely recorded conversations between senior NPA officials discussing charging Zuma before or after the 2007 ANC national conference at which he was elected party president.
Moipone Noko, the director of public prosecutions in KwaZuluNatal is expected to facilitate the necessary processes for Zuma and his co-accused to appear in court.
Noko was part of the team of senior prosecutors assembled by Abrahams to assist him with going through Zuma’s representations last year.
Maimane said: “This is a victory for all who have fought for years for Jacob Zuma to face accountability for his crimes. That accountability starts now.”
The ANC said it had confidence in the country’s criminal justice system and the independence of the judiciary.
“We continue to assert the inalienable right of all in our country, including comrade Zuma, to be presumed innocent until and if proven guilty,” the party said.
Pierre de Vos, a law professor at UCT, said Zuma could seek a court order to block the case against him by asking for “a permanent stay of prosecution so that the court decides whether he is capable of getting a fair trial”.
“That could be done of course, that is a possibility.”
In 2016, Zuma said a four-year investigation he set up while president had found no evidence of widespread bribery, corruption or fraud in the selection of bidders to supply the arms.
Nor had it found evidence that officials were bribed in an attempt to influence the deal.
Zuma was beset by scandal during his tenure as president. He survived several motions of no-confidence in Parliament and the Constitutional Court said he breached the law by ignoring an order to repay some of the R246m in state funds spent on renovating his home. Zuma has since repaid some of the money, as ordered by the court.
He has also been implicated by the public protector, in a 2016 report that alleges the Gupta family, billionaire friends of Zuma, used links with him to win state contracts.
An inquiry on the allegations is due to start soon.