Publication: Cape Times Issued: Date: 2006-09-06 Reporter: Karyn Maughan Reporter: Reporter:

Judge Grills Prosecution over Request for Further Delay to Zuma's Corruption Trial

 

Publication 

Cape Times
Date

2006-09-06

Reporter

 Karyn Maughan

Web Link

www.capetimes.co.za

 

Johannesburg : The prosecution in the Jacob Zuma corruption trial has been grilled over its request for a further delay to complete its investigations.

Presiding Judge Herbert Msimang yesterday asked the state's counsel four times the number of questions he had put to Zuma's defence team.

Looking directly at senior advocate Wim Trengove, who is representing the state in its application to postpone Zuma's case, the judge queried why the state had charged Zuma before it had completed its investigation against him.

Judge Msimang said the state had not argued that there was any "procedural advantage" to its apparently premature charging of Zuma.

Zuma and French arms company Thint face corruption charges related to an alleged R500 000 bribe he was offered to protect the company from a damaging investigation into the controversial arms deal.

"On what basis can you extend an investigation that is already completed?" asked Judge Msimang, referring to the state's decision to conduct a series of raids against Zuma, Thint and Zuma's legal representatives, after Zuma had been charged and long after the state had closed its investigation into him prior to the trial of Schabir Shaik.

The judge's comment prompted approving murmurs from the dozens of Zuma supporters packed into Court A in the high court here, where Zuma was joined in the dock by Thint managing director Pierre Moynot.

Earlier, and against the state's wishes, Judge Msimang ordered the National Prosecuting Authority to argue first regarding its application for a postponement of Zuma's trial - before Zuma's defence team asked that the case against him be withdrawn.

Trengove then sought to persuade Judge Msimang that the state's requested postponement would not cause an "unreasonable delay" in Zuma's trial.

He concluded the state's argument by urging the judge not to grant Zuma and Thint's application for the case against them to be withdrawn permanently and thereby "stifle" the state's efforts to prosecute them.

"The public is entitled to suspicions of crime being prosecuted," said Trengove.

In an effort to challenge the defence's suggestion that the state had done little to respect Zuma and Thint's rights to a speedy trial, Trengove also pointed out that the state had completed its forensic audit into Zuma's financial affairs.

The state has yet to hand the report - a staggering 54 files of documents - into evidence.

But Kemp J Kemp SC, for Zuma, was unimpressed by the state's claims that it would be ready to proceed with the case against Zuma on October 15 - the day on which it has promised to provide Zuma with a final indictment.

Asked by Judge Msimang whether he was arguing that the state could not be trusted, Kemp responded: "Let's put it like this My Lord, they have shown a tendency not to live up to their promises."

Stressing that Zuma had spent the last 15 months waiting for some clarity on the exact nature of the charges against him, Kemp asked: "Is this how we operate? Is this how a constitutional democracy deals with its citizens … You can't conduct a trial in that way."

He further described the provisional indictment that the state had given Zuma as "not worth the paper it is written on" and criticised the state for giving the defence four million pages of computer documents to examine before the case.

With acknowledgements to Karyn Maughan and Cape Times.