Publication: Sapa Issued: Pietermaritzburg Date: 2006-07-31 Reporter: Sapa Reporter:

Zuma Trial Adjourned to September 5

 

Publication 

Sapa
BC-COURT-6TH-LD-ZUMA

Issued

Pietermaritzburg
Date 2006-07-31

Reporter

Sapa

 

Jacob Zuma will have to wait for more than a month for the corruption trial he believes will clear his name after it was adjourned to September 5 by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday.

In less than two hours judge Herbert Msimang adjourned the trial to allow the defence and the state time to prepare replies and heads of argument to the state's application for a postponement.

Msimang did not accept state prosecutor Wim Trengove's assertion that it should be postponed till September 7 because colleague Anton Steynberg would be overseas at a conference.

"This matter we all know has an influence on our society. You say it must be held over because somebody is attending a conference abroad?" he asked disbelievingly.

When Zuma left the court he was flanked by a large group of bodyguards and Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, African National Congress general secretary Kgalema Motlanthe, KwaZulu-Natal premier S'bu Ndebele, former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni and SA Communist Party president Blade Nzimande.

Vavi said: "It is regrettable that this cannot proceed, we cannot understand this diversion. They had six years of investigation... it's crazy."

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesman Makhosini Nkosi said: "It would obviously put more pressure on the prosecution team which already has a lot to deal with but we understand and respect the judge's decision."

Zuma, who is deputy president of the ANC, faces two charges of corruption.

His co-accused, the arms company Thint, is accused of having offered him a bribe of R500,000 a year in exchange for his silence during a probe into the country's multi-billion rand arms deal.

When Zuma left the court the thousands of people gathered to support him jumped up and down and sang.

He was led to a seat in a tent erected in the middle of Church Street outside the court and, with his hands clasped, sat next to Ndebele.

Taking the nearby stage, Vavi accused the NPA of collaborating with the media.

"The media mobilised the media *1 against JZ (Zuma). They intensified a collaboration so that they could launch a media trial."

He said that when the NPA laid charges it appeared that it had no evidence in the first place. *2

He reiterated Cosatu's statement that there "may be" other people responsible for corruption in the arms deal and said the organisation would be urging for a new investigation to be opened "to determine who were the real beneficiaries".

He said: "There should be other people responsible for the corruption in the arms deal. To hide them we are chasing the wrong animal, a new investigation has to establish who is responsible."

Vavi said: "We will be here on the fifth of September, in even bigger numbers.

Two or three thousand supporters packed into the small space, many hanging out of trees for a better view while a police helicopter circled overhead.

Some had spent the night at a vigil for Zuma.

Ndebele joined Vavi's criticism of the media saying: "The media have taken a side.

"We are not going to allow the media to choose the president of this country," he said to deafening roars of approval from the crowd.

"These so-called analysts, there are hundreds of them being rolled out to insult Jacob Zuma... We are saying that must come to an end. We don't even have a single left wing newspaper in this country. The media are increasingly expressing the interests of the rich and better off."

With acknowledgement to Sapa.


*1       It's called rolling mass media action - love it or get to love it.


*2      This twerp makes Goebbels look like a PR prostitute.