I’m innocent, Zuma tells supporters after court appearance
Former South African president Jacob Zuma has told cheering supporters he is not guilty of corruption after appearing in KwaZulu-Natal High Court yesterday, two months after his party, the African National Congress, forced him from office.
In a sign that the corruption case against Zuma could go on for years, prosecutor Billy Downer said Zuma’s legal team planned to challenge the legitimacy of the prosecution, which involves the reinstatement of charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering that had been dropped years ago, and to seek a permanent stay.
Downer said authorities were ready to proceed with a trial in November, but the challenge and request for a stay of prosecution could each take months, especially if appeals are pursued.
The case at the Durban courthouse was adjourned until June 8 on the agreement of both parties, to enable Zuma’s defence team to prepare their documents for the challenge.
One controversial aspect of Zuma’s case is its funding by taxpayers, enabling his lawyers to mount successive appeals and challenges – a legal strategy dubbed Zuma’s ‘‘Stalingrad’’ approach by South African media, a reference to his lawyers’ determination to fight for every yard of legal turf however long it takes.
Zuma looked tense at times, sitting in a dark suit on the court bench behind his lawyers. He is charged with 16 counts of corruption, fraud, money laundering and racketeering in relation to 783 payments he allegedly received as part of a South African arms deal in 1999, when he was deputy president. Also facing prosecution is Thales, formerly known as Thint, a French arms company accused of bribing Zuma.
Zuma’s appearance so soon after leaving office was striking in a continent with a history of top officials in various countries being criticised for alleged corruption, sometimes running into tens of millions of dollars, but where few expresidents have faced justice.
Since being ousted by the ANC and then replaced by his former deputy Cyril Ramaphosa in February, Zuma has claimed the prosecution amounts to an attack by his political enemies.
Zuma said nothing during his court appearance but spoke to supporters in Zulu on a stage outside the courthouse, saying the charges were political and that he was being persecuted because he had exposed the lack of freedom in South Africa.
‘‘The truth will come out. What have I done? I am innocent until proven guilty,’’ he said. ‘‘I can’t believe all the lies about me.’’
He criticised the ANC, which has banned his supporters from wearing ANC colours, clothing and regalia at his trial to support him – an order that has been ignored. He said that when he asked for answers about what had been done to him, no-one was willing to talk to him. ‘‘Why am I being treated as if I’m guilty?’’ he said.
‘‘They are fighting me because I said there is no freedom. That’s why they take me to court. They want to shut my mouth,’’ he said, calling for radical economic transformation and the return of land from white people to black South Africans.
He ended by dancing and singing a song in Zulu: ‘‘I am wounded by people I grew up with.’’
Thousands of Zuma supporters marched in Durban’s streets after his court appearance. Earlier, supporters held an overnight prayer vigil outside Durban’s High Court in Kwa-Zulu Natal, a stronghold for Zuma.
The case against Zuma has been a long time coming. It came after his financial adviser Schabir Shaik was found guilty of fraud and corruption in relation to the arms deal and alleged corrupt dealing with Zuma in 2005. Zuma was sacked as deputy president, and two years later was charged.
At that point the charges seemed likely to crush Zuma’s ambition to be president. But after he became leader of the ANC in December 2007, the case against him began to topple.
Just weeks before the 2009 parliamentary election, the then head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Mokotedi Mpshe, abruptly dropped the charges, removing the political barriers for Zuma to become president.
Later that year, the opposition Democratic Alliance launched an application that the decision to drop the charges be reviewed in the courts. In 2016, the High Court ruled that Mpshe’s decision to drop the charges was irrational and ordered that the charges be reinstated. Last year Zuma lost a Supreme Court appeal against that decision.