‘Travesty of justice’: Zuma’s legal team responds to SCA’s ‘glaringly vague’ ruling

The Jacob G Zuma Foundation has responded to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling to dismiss the former president’s application for leave to appeal.

The Foundation said “justice was most definitely not serviced in this case”, and added the ruling was “disappointing but not unexpected”.

Zuma Foundation’s response

No clarity from SCA

The Foundation said it was “astounded by the glaring vagueness and the ambiguity inherent in this decision” and slammed SCA for not providing clarity.

“Court judgments are there to provide legal certainty and clarity so that subjective inferences are avoided. All litigants are entitled to know the exact reasons why their cases are successful or not”.

In light of this, Zuma briefed his legal team “to do all that is necessary and approach the President of the SCA”. His team also notified the (National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

‘No stone unturned’

As per the Foundation, all Zuma wants “is a fair trial, and will leave no stone unturned to ensure the constitutional promises of the rule of law and equality before the law are evenly applied”.

On Thursday, 31 March, SCA ruled against Zuma’s prosecution petitions as it had “no reasonable prospects of success of success in an appeal”.

This included the former president’s attempt to remove State advocate Billy Downer from the trial.

The SCA said there was no other compelling reason why an appeal should be heard, and cleared the way for the trial to proceed.

Case to proceed 11 April

NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said the state welcomed the SCA’s ruling, as it has “always maintained there is no prospect of success on appeal”.

Zuma’s legal team will be in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on 11 April to “ensure the protection of these sacrosanct rights and values enshrined in our constitution”, the Foundation said.

“For the criminal trial to proceed under the present conditions whilst these legal protections are being pursued would be a travesty of justice and a vindictive assault on our constitution.”

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