Publication: Cape Argus Issued: Date: 2008-03-12 Reporter: Tania Broughton Reporter: Karyn Maughan

Judge Has 'No Difficulty' with Raid Evidence

 

Publication 

Cape Argus
Date

2008-03-12
Reporter Tania Broughton
Karyn Maughan

Web Link

www.capeargus.co.za


The type of "creative conspiracy" Jacob Zuma was allegedly involved in justified broad investigation, a Constitutional Court judge has stated.

And Justice Zac Yacoob on Tuesday said he had "no difficulty" with the information that the state had provided to justify the search and seizure operations it conducted on Zuma and his attorneys' homes and offices.

Yacoob was responding to arguments made by lawyers for Zuma and French arms company Thint, who claim that warrants used to raid their homes and offices should be invalidated because they were "vague" and "over broad".

The August 2005 raids conducted on Zuma and his attorneys netted 93 000 documents, later used by the state to conduct a massive forensic audit into Zuma's financial affairs. It was this audit that formed the basis of the indictment served on Zuma by the state in December last year.

Yacoob was unmoved *1 by arguments advanced by Zuma's counsel Kemp J Kemp and Thint advocate Peter Hodes that the warrants should have been far more specific.

"It is a broad conspiracy, if it is one, that has used national and international methods," Yacoob said, adding this was why the state needed to ensure it had a "catch-all phrase" in the warrants allowing it to seize whatever material it thought to be relevant.

"It is understandable in the safeguarding of the public interest," he said, responding to Hodes's contention that such a phrase was "a licence for a general ransacking".

Justice Kate O'Regan suggested that the legislation used to obtain the disputed search warrants was necessary so police could investigate more than "just the tip of the iceberg" in corruption and fraud cases.

O'Regan said if search warrants had to be too precise, the ability of the police to investigate white collar crime would be undermined.

She was also unimpressed by Kemp's suggestion that the huge number of documents seized in the raids effectively proved that the warrants were too vague.

"It must have been the best documented case of corruption in the world," Kemp said.

O'Regan responded that international experience had shown that corruption investigations generated large numbers of documents.

Yacoob added: "If the allegations (against Zuma and Thint) are true, then the number of documents is not in the least bit surprising."

* This article was originally published on page 3 of The Daily News on March 12, 2008

With acknowledgements to Tania Broughton, Karyn Maughan and Cape Argus.


*1       I would have moved - right to the barf bucket.