Durban — The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has lodged an application in the Durban High Court to postpone the corruption trial of former deputy president Jacob Zuma and French arms manufacturer Thint until the first half of next year.

The state’s case against Zuma and Thint was scheduled to start on July 31. Last month the NPA sent a letter to Zuma’s defence team and to KwaZulu-Natal judge president Vuka Tshabalala seeking a postponement until February.

However, Dir-ectorate of Special Operations senior special investigator Jacob du Plooy said in an affidavit lodged at the high court this week that “as things stand, however, it would appear that even this date is optimistic”.

Reasons for the delay were outside the state’s control, he said.

Michael Hulley, speaking for Zuma’s defence team, said yesterday they would oppose the adjournment and he expected arguments arising from the state’s application would be heard in court on July 31.

Du Plooy cited as reasons for the delay the fact that the forensic audit could not be completed until the legal proceedings arising out of search and seizure operations were finalised, so that the auditors could be sure of what evidence was admissible in court.

On August 18, search and seizure operations were conducted at 22 premises and 93000 documents were confiscated.

Du Plooy said certain documents had to remain sealed, the state’s computer forensics experts had not been able to reconstruct and analyse hard drives seized and the preparation of opposing papers for the appeals against the search and seizure operations had taken a lot of time.

As a result, it had been impossible to settle the indictment.

The fact that a trial judge had not yet been announced for the July 31 proceedings meant that a decision could not be made on an application by the state to issue a letter of request to Mauritius for original documents seized during a search of the Thomson/Thales offices, Du Plooy said.

Zuma was fired from government by President Thabo Mbeki last year after the judge in a graft case against Zuma’s financial adviser Schabir Shaik concluded the two men had a “generally corrupt” relationship.

The Shaik trial had also yielded fresh evidence which needed investigation, Du Plooy said.

Another reason for requesting the postponement was that an appeal on the Shaik conviction was scheduled for August 21-25. The prosecution team in Zuma’s trial was also involved in this appeal. The outcome of the Shaik appeal might also influence Zuma’s indictment.

With acknowledgement to Edward West and Business Day.