Publication: Business Day Issued: Date: 2006-09-06 Reporter: Ernest Mabuza

State Under Fire for Zuma Trial Delays

 

Publication 

Business Day
Date 2006-09-06

Reporter

 Ernest Mabuza

Web Link

www.businessday.co.za

 

The state yesterday came under fire in the corruption trial of former deputy president Jacob Zuma in the Pietermaritzburg High Court as it advanced reasons why it needed the case to be postponed until next year.

Zuma and his co-accused, French arms company Thint, are opposing postponement. The defence in turn has applied for a permanent stay of prosecution or, alternatively, for the matter to be struck off the roll.

Zuma is accused of having accepted a R500 000-a-year bribe from Thint in exchange for protection from a probe into SA’s multibillion-rand arms deal.

Judge Herbert Msimang asked state counsel Wim Trengove what its original reasons were for the postponement when it made an application in July. Msimang’s question stemmed from the fact that the state seemed to have abandoned the original reasons for asking for a postponement.

Trengove said the main reason was that the state was waiting for the legal challenges against the search and seizure operations at the premises of Zuma and his attorneys to be finalised, as there was a large number of documents in dispute that the state needed in order to finalise an indictment against Zuma and Thint.

The state said it also hoped that a settlement would be reached in order to ensure that a KPMG forensic report was finalised. Most of the documents that KPMG used were seized during the raids last year.

Msimang was not satisfied with this answer and pointed out that in May, the state had decided to go ahead with the finalisation of the KPMG report irrespective of the outcome of the challenges.

Trengove said the decision to finalise the 500-page KPMG report was taken in the hope that the state, Zuma and other parties would reach a settlement.

Yesterday, however, Trengove said the state had finalised the KPMG report and a final indictment against Zuma would be ready by October 15.

Zuma’s counsel, Kemp Kemp, said that when the state set the date for trial in October last year, it had already lost one of the search and seizure cases.

“When the state approached the judge president, they knew about the challenges. The state said it would be able to proceed. They have shown a tendency not to live up to their promises.”

The trial continues today.

With acknowledgements to Ernest Mabuza and Business Day.