Publication: The Star
Issued:
Date: 2006-02-14
Reporter: Jeremy Gordin
Reporter: Karyn Maughan
Reporter:
| Publication |
The Star
|
| Date |
2006-02-14 |
|
Reporter
|
Karyn Maughan, Jeremy Gordin |
|
Web Link
|
www.thestar.co.za
|
Judge
Ngoepe steps aside but one of his deputies doesn't want the case
Jacob Zuma's rape trial has become too hot to
handle. His defence team have indicated that, if Deputy Judge President
Jeremiah Shongwe took the bench at 10 o'clock this morning - as the judge
president of the Transvaal division, Bernard Ngoepe, said he would - they would seek his recusal, as happened with the judge
president himself.
Earlier Judge Ngoepe told a packed court that Deputy
Judge President Phineas Mojapelo - who was widely publicised as the judge who
would hear the case against Zuma - was not prepared to do so
"for personal reasons".
Next in line to hear the case, he
suggested, would be Deputy Judge President Shongwe.
If the defence
applies for Judge Shongwe's recusal and succeeds with their application, it is
not known who will hear the case against 63-year-old Zuma.
Yesterday,
before recusing himself in a bombshell announcement that left even Zuma visibly
shocked and clenching his jaw, Judge Ngoepe made it clear that a case "of such a
high profile" person would be heard in his division in terms
of seniority.
The Star understands that Zuma's legal team have
"difficulties" with Judge Shongwe's suggested appointment, apparently because of
certain personal reasons, which have not been
specified, and also because Judge Shongwe had been involved in a Zuma
matter related to his forthcoming corruption trial.
Judge Ngoepe
explained yesterday he was not recusing himself because he had issued the
controversial search warrants used by the Scorpions to search the premises of
Zuma's attorneys.
He said the argument that he had made a prima facie
judgment about Zuma's credibility did not hold water.
But even though
Judge Ngoepe denied that Zuma's fears were well founded, he said he believed
Zuma would continue to "hold his fears despite all my explanations". Therefore
he had decided to step aside and let another judge handle the matter.
He
stressed that he was not affording Zuma special
treatment.
In addition to seeking Judge Shongwe's recusal - if he indeed took the bench this morning - Zuma's lawyers
have also indicated that they would be asking for a two-week adjournment of his
trial to allow them to consider evidence that they received from the state at
the end of last week.
The evidence is believed to include 17 000 telephone-record entries *1 and a psychologist's
report.
In September 2003, then Pretoria High Court judge Shongwe refused
an urgent application brought by Zuma to see the famous "encrypted fax" that
implicated him in corruption in the arms deal.
The hand-written,
encrypted fax was later central to the prosecution of
Zuma's former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, on charges of fraud and
corruption.
Judge Shongwe struck the matter off the
roll - due, he said, to its lack of urgency *2.
He instructed
Zuma to pay the legal costs of the respondents - the National Director of Public
Prosecutions, the National Prosecuting Authority and the
Scorpions.
Zuma's defence team yesterday sought Judge Ngoepe's recusal on
the grounds that he had issued search warrants in August to the Scorpions for
the search of the offices of Zuma's attorneys in Johannesburg and
Durban.
Stressing that Zuma's defence team did not believe that there
were allegations of actual bias against Ngoepe, Zuma's advocate Kemp J Kemp SC
said Zuma had "an apprehension that my Lord may not look at his case in the same
way as he would look at the case of another accused because of certain past events".
Judge Ngoepe went on to
compare the importance of Zuma's rape trial to that of the Rivonia trial, in
which Nelson Mandela was convicted of treason, the trial of the killers of Chris
Hani, and Mandela's divorce from Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.With acknowledgements to Jeremy
Gordin,
Karyn
Maughan and The Star.
*1 Maar di's
baie.
*2 As he should have done, because the matter
was indeed not legally urgent. Indeed, Judge Shongwe never actually had to rule
on the matter because it was settled between the two parties and then made an
order of court by Shongwe J. See :
- Zuma Allowed to See Encrypted Fax, but Only When Shaik's Trial
Begins
- http://www.armsdeal-vpo.co.za/articles06/zuma_allowed.html
Seeing that there was an agreement between the parties, how could
Shongwe J's presiding over the new matter be prejudicial to the
Accused?
Roll out Hartzenberg J - he's No. 3 in the TPD.