The Citizen (Gauteng)

JZ court costs case on hold

APPLICATIO­N: HIGH COURT RESERVES JUDGMENT IN PAYMENT SUBMISSION BY DA AND EFF

- Ilse de Lange

Parties want him to pay back between R17 million and R32 million.

The issue whether state functionar­ies were entitled to private legal defence funded by the state when facing graft charges, cried out for considerat­ion by the court, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has argued in its battle to force ex-president Jacob Zuma to pay for his own defence.

A full bench of the High Court in Pretoria yesterday reserved judgment in applicatio­ns by the DA and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) aimed at forcing Zuma to pay for his own defence in his corruption and money laundering trial.

The parties also want him to pay back between R17 million and R32 million already spent on his various applicatio­ns.

Zuma launched, and lost, numerous applicatio­ns aimed at stopping his criminal prosecutio­n at the state’s cost, on condition that he repaid them if he lost.

He has not repaid a cent, but his advocate Thabani Masuku pointed out that the state attorney had never asked for any repayment. He said Zuma would pay if asked, but it would inevitably affect his defence in his criminal trial, which was due to resume in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermari­tzburg on November 30.

He said the high court could not determine if Zuma was acting in his personal or official capacity and should leave that for the Pietermari­tzburg court to determine.

The criminal charges were withdrawn against Zuma in 2009, but reinstated in March this year after a damning Constituti­onal Court ruling that the withdrawal of the charges was unconstitu­tional.

Masuku yesterday confirmed that Zuma intended applying for a permanent stay of his prosecutio­n (once again), which he was “confident” would succeed.

Masuku argued that there was not a shred of evidence to support the EFF’s contention that Zuma

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