'Union champions Zuma's cause of being 'misrepresented'

Cosatu has called on the five Supreme Court of Appeal judges who turned down Scha-bir Shaik's appeal to resign.

The trade union federation accused the judges of misrepresenting the findings oftrial Judge Hilary Squires and of damaging ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma's reputation.

Further, the trade union called for Zuma's reinstatement as the country's deputy president.

The clash between the union and the judges comes after Judge Hilary Squires denied in a letter in the Weekender, a Business Day weekend newspaper, that he had found a "generally corrupt relationship" between Zuma and his former financial advisor, Durban businessman Schabir Shaik.

Last week Shaik began his 15-year sentence for fraud and corruption after the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld the conviction and sentence im-posed by Judge Squires on Shaik.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi was quoted in Business Day today as saying: "We will never accept that Jacob Zuma would receive a fair trial because the president suspended him following what he believed was coming from Judge Squires."

He said the Shaik judgement had done irreparable damage to Zuma.

In a letter written to the Weekender, Judge Squires attributed the phrase to the prosecution.

"If you have never read the judgement delivered in that case, may I suggest that you do so.

"I can find no such mention of my having made any such comment," he said.

"If you have already read the judgment, and in it this phrase 'a generally corrupt relationship', occurs, I would be grateful if you would advise me of the page and line number in which the statement appears."

Judge Squires said it ha not been possible during the trial to make any finding on the nature of the relationship between the two men, since Zuma was not on trial.

Meanwhile, the head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Vusi Pikoli said the NPA had no regrets about their decision to prosecute Zuma.

Speaking on the SABC programme Interface last night, Pikoli said: "In terms of what we have and what we had then, it was definitely a case to be answered."

He said all they wanted was a postponement and that the NPA had been sure of its case.

However, in September, Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Herbert Msimang failed to grant the NPA a postponement and threw the case out of court.

At the time Msimang said the prosecution's reasons and approach to the case had "jettisoned" standard legal practice "in favour of some non-procedural policy" and "ill-advised decision-making".

Last night, however, Pikoli said: "From our side we are confident that we never made a mistake. It's just unfortunate it did not go our way."

Pikoli said the NPA was ensuring that it was fully prepared before making its next move against Zuma.

With acknowledgement to Wendy Jasson Da Costa, Sapa and Cape Argus.