Publication: Cape Argus
Issued:
Date: 2006-07-31
Reporter: Sapa
Reporter:
Trial postponed, but State scolded
The
Defence scored an early victory *1 as Jacob Zuma's corruption trial
failed to clear its first hurdle in the Pietermaritzburg High Court
today.
The judge lashed the State over its bid to stall proceedings by
two months and whittled this down to a little over a month.
The State sought the delay to allow for further investigation to
obtain further witness statements and draw up a final indictment. *2
The defence lodged a counter-application for the case against
Zuma and his co-accused, the French arms firm Thint, to be
withdrawn.
Zuma and Thint lodged five files of legal papers supporting
this application.
The State has engaged the services of one of South
Africa's top advocates, Wim Trengove, to argue its reasons for a
postponement.
Mr Justice Herbert Msimang decided to give the prosecution
only until September 5.
He hit out at the State's submission that
advocates Billy Downer and Anton Steinberg might have problems attending the
hearing because they would be at an overseas conference until September
8.
"This is such an important matter," he told Trengove. "This matter, we
all know, impacts on our society and now you say it must be delayed because
someone is attending a conference?''
His comment drew loud murmurs of
agreement from Zuma supporters in the public gallery.
A grey-suited Zuma
took his place in the dock next to Thint boss Pierre Moynot 10 minutes after the
case was scheduled to start. The two men appeared relaxed, sipping from bottles
of mineral water as they chatted and joked with each other.
In an
action-packed morning, Trengove argued that the State needed at least a month
before it could even reply to Zuma and Thint's counter-application for the case
against them to be withdrawn.
This delay, he said, was especially
necessary in light of the fact that Zuma's former financial adviser, Schabir
Shaik, would be appealing against his conviction and sentence on corruption
charges in the Supreme Court of Appeal in August.
The State said the
files handed up by the defence were "voluminous" and would take time to work
through.
It wanted until August 21 to go through the defence application
for the case to be dropped.
While Zuma and Thint's legal teams agreed
that the State needed time to consider their application, Kemp J Kemp SC, for
Zuma, suggested that it only needed two weeks to reply.
Kessie Naidu SC,
for Thint, was less generous, arguing that the court should reconvene on
Thursday.
Kemp wanted the argument to be presented by August
14.
He said the State could then file its heads of argument on August 30,
followed by the defence heads of argument on September 1.
Trengove said
Kemp's proposed dates were "unnecessarily tight".
There were two very
substantial affidavits.
Trengove pointed out that Zuma's and Thint's
application for the charges to be withdrawn had not been filed until this
morning.
"It would be unfair to the State to put them under pressure
because (Zuma and Thint's legal teams) chose to launch their application so
late.
"This is a very serious application with very serious
consequences," Trengove argued.
"If this application succeeds, its effect
will be to forever bar the prosecution of the accused."
It would
therefore not be in the interests of justice for the State to "do a rush job''
in responding to Zuma's application.
In a separate matter this morning,
Judge Msimang agreed to consider an application brought by the SABC for his
ruling to be broadcast.
While the court was in session, heavy security,
including a police Swat team, stood guard outside court.
Earlier this
morning Zuma arrived at court with arms raised in greeting for his supporters. A
huge crowd was gathered outside.
Asked how he felt, Zuma just smiled at
the people gathered in the corridor of court A.
He wore a suit, in
contrast to the tribal regalia of the large group of tribal chiefs taking their
places in the court.
A large group of bodyguards and two heavily armed
policemen kept supporters and reporters at bay while Zuma waited in a back room
for the start of the case.
Kemp made a quiet entrance through the two
security check points.
Kemp, who successfully represented Zuma in his
recent sensational rape trial, walked straight into the courtroom and prepared
for battle.
With acknowledgement to the Staff Reporter, Sapa and Cape
Argus.
This must surely be one of the most dim-witted articles
in a long time.
*1 If this was a victory for the
Defence, then it's going to be a turkey
shoot.
*2 This postponement of five weeks is just
to allow the application for the main postponement to be argued starting 5
September 2006. The State is going to then argue for the main trial to be
postponed from 31 July 2006 to February 2007.
So the State has already
won about five weeks and practically about eight weeks at least.
So is
this a victory for the Defence?
Time to stock up on deepfreezers for
excess stock of bulk turkeys.
Or is it me going mad?