Zuma issues warning to ANC comrades amid trial
FORMER President Jacob Zuma has warned his fellow ANC comrades that if his criminal charges are not dropped, many of them will be implicated in his fraud and corruption trial.
Zuma issued the stern warning while addressing scores of his supporters outside the Pietermaritzburg High Court following a week-long application for a permanent stay of prosecution. Judgment has been reserved, and judges must inform his lawyers and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) of a later date for judgment, which may be handed down in the next two to three month.
“My lawyers told the court that this case was politically tainted. If it continues, I am warning that more of us, including those who want the trial to continue, will be implicated, and they will be in trouble, except myself because I did not commit any crime,” said Zuma.
Zuma and his co-accused, French arms dealer Thales, are fighting to have the charges against them permanently quashed.
Zuma also complained about President Cyril Ramaphosa stopping the state from paying for his legal costs. His lawyer, advocate Muzi Sikhakhane SC, told the court Zuma could not pay his legal costs.
Zuma said among his fellow senior comrades there were those who pressured former public protector Thuli Madonsela to force him to institute a commission of inquiry into interference in state affairs by the Guptas.
“I warned them that if that happens, many of us will be in trouble, but they insisted – even saying, as the president, I should not appoint the commission and that should be done by the chief justice (Mogoeng Mogoeng),” he said.
He said under pressure, he formed the Zondo Commission into State Capture, which later took many by surprise. “As if I did not warn them, a fat white man (Angelo Agrizzi) appeared before the commission to reveal who were paid millions by Bosasa. My name was not implicated.
“This case (arms deal) would be another Bosasa, because people who think they are clean will be implicated, and I will be cleared. “My name had been linked to Bosasa, and there is this Eskom inquiry and my name has not been mentioned,” said Zuma.
Zuma said there were politicians who were hell-bent on destroying him.
“They said they will only be satisfied once Zuma is dead,” he said.
He said political conspiracy against him started prior to the ANC’S elective conference in Polokwane in 2007.
“They were phoning each other, saying ‘arrest him for whatever so that he would not go to the conference’.
“Even after one of them had left the NPA, he kept calling the NPA asking why this Zulu boy has not been arrested,” he said.
He said he was fighting for a stay of prosecution because “the case has undermined the rights of the accused”.
“After 15 years since the charges were laid, the case does not come to an end. Throughout these years the charges have been collapsing and reinstated,” he said.
About the legal costs, Zuma said Ramaphosa was breaching policy that allowed the state to cover his legal costs as the former president and former deputy president.
“President Thabo Mbeki and I had agreed that my legal costs would be covered, but under this new administration that has been cancelled so that I should rot in jail,” he said.