Publication: Independent Online Issued: Date: 2007-05-29 Reporter: Karyn Maughan

Zuma Starts Campaign to Prove His Innocence

 

Publication 

Independent Online
Date

2007-05-29

Reporter

 Karyn Maughan

Web Link

 www.iol.co.za

 

Seven court cases in the next four months, with the first having started on Tuesday morning, will determine whether Jacob Zuma runs for ANC president as an accused fraudster or an exonerated man.

Before the ANC elects its leadership in November, three courts will decide whether the State may obtain evidence related to the alleged R500 000 bribe Zuma received from French arms company Thint - as well as if it can use documents on which the State produced a massive audit into Zuma's financial affairs.

On Tuesday morning the Durban High Court is set to hear the first of the cases, in which Zuma's lawyers are expected to try to quash the State's attempts to obtain the original documents that helped to convict Schabir Shaik and which have been held by Mauritian authorities for the last six years.

In court documents, Zuma has accused the National Prosecuting Authority of "engineering" its investigation to thwart his political ambitions. "This would greatly aid the cause of those politically opposed to me playing any leadership role in the ANC or government of the RSA," he stated.

'This would greatly aid the cause of those politically opposed to me playing any leadership role'

He added that he was "disturbed" that the NPA, by seeking information related to its investigations from British and Mauritian authorities, was effectively casting him "in the role of a criminal and suspect".

"The present letter of request (to British authorities)... makes the bland statement that the offence (that I am being investigated for) is not political. It makes no mention of the fact that the issue of a political motive as a component of the investigation directed at all my affairs has been central to my resistance to the manner of the investigation," he said.

The State claims Zuma has "not a shred of credible evidence" to support his "scandalous, vexatious, argumentative and irrelevant" suggestions of political conspiracy against him.

While admitting that Zuma "is a suspect and has been for some time", Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Anton Steynberg has stressed that the State "has no interest in Zuma's political ambitions" .

According to Steynberg, Zuma and Thint's objections were aimed at preventing "the State's possession of damning evidence which might be used against them in any future prosecution".

In addition to the constitutional court's ruling on Shaik's appeal bid, the following cases will shape if and how the State prosecutes Zuma or Thint:

May 29 - The Mauritian documents:

The NPA has already won an order from Judge Phillip Levensohn allowing prosecutors to request certain documents from the Mauritian authorities, which the State has described as "damning" against Zuma and Thint.

The documents include the 2000 diary of Alain Thetard, the former chief executive of Thint, Thales International's SA subsidiary. The diary details a meeting between Thetard, Zuma and Shaik, which the State claims ended with an agreement on a R500 000 a year bribe for Zuma from Thint.

Zuma and Thint will appeal against that decision in the Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA) on September 21, but are now trying to stop the State from obtaining the documents prior to that appeal being heard.

August 22 - The British Request:

Zuma's attorneys are trying to stop the State from obtaining information about his and Thint's financial affairs from banks and lawyers in the UK. This information, it emerged from court documents, related to how Thint allegedly paid Zuma R500 000 in exchange for protection from a damaging arms deal inquiry. Zuma wants the State to be stopped from requesting the information - despite the fact that it obtained a court order to do so.

August 27, 28 and 29:

The Scorpions' raids on Zuma and his current attorney Michael Hulley, former attorney Julekha Mahomed and Thint's offices. Legal representatives for Zuma, Thint and the State will wrangle over the search-and-seizure operations conducted by the Scorpions two years ago and used to obtain the 93 000 documents on which the State's forensic audit of Zuma's finances was based.

The SCA will also have to rule on the State's appeal against a ruling by Johannesburg High Court Judge Ismail Hussain, who ruled that the searches and seizures of documents from Mahomed's Johannesburg home and office were unlawful.

Thint is also appealing against a decision by Pretoria High Court Judge Ben du Plessis, who found that the search warrants used to raid its offices were lawful.


• This article was originally published on page 3 of Pretoria News on May 29, 2007

With acknowledgements to Karyn Maughan and Independent Online.