Zuma’s legal shenanigans another ploy to buy time

Given that Jacob Zuma has employed just about every legal strategy open to him – and plenty of public relations ones, too – to avoid his day in court on corruption charges, one has to wonder what is really behind the announcement yesterday that his legal team is withdrawing from his defence.

Could it be they are worried they will not be paid?

That could be valid, given that the courts have refused to allow the state to continue to fund his defence – and also ordered he pay back the more than R15 million already spent by him on the case.

Could it be, though, that this is just another ploy to buy time?

Without a legal team, Zuma can ask the court for yet another extension to brief another legal team… a process which could require months.

Technically, the courts could just say: Enough, sir! And they could force him into the dock.

This is highly unlikely, given that would play right into the victim narrative Zuma has constructed around himself.

It is more likely that he will be granted a postponement.

But, yet another delay makes the old saying, “justice delayed is justice denied”, all the more telling