Zuma to pay legal costs

FORMER president Jacob Zuma has been denied leave by the South Gauteng High Court to appeal against a court ruling that ordered him to pay the costs of his failed legal review of former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s directive that a judicial commission of inquiry be appointed to probe the state capture scandal.

Zuma had sought to take on review Madonsela’s remedial action on the basis that, according to the Constitution, only the president had the discretion to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry and that he could not be directed by another organ of state as to how to exercise his power.

Madonsela also instructed that not the president, but the chief justice appoint the judge to head the commission.

The court held on Friday that an appeal against the costs order had “no reasonable prospect of success” and it was not in the interest of justice that Zuma be allowed to proceed. It said the parties to the case and the public deserved “much-needed finality in this matter”.

The judges dealt extensively with Zuma’s delay in launching the application for leave to appeal only on June 8 |