Arms deal: Date set for Jacob Zuma’s Thales case

Former president Jacob Zuma’s arms deal trial continues next week as the application for leave to appeal will be heard in the High Court.

The former statesman and Thales are on trial over the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal struck when Zuma was KZN’s MEC for Economic Development, in the 1990s.

Zuma faces 18 charges and 783 counts of fraud‚ corruption, money laundering, and racketeering – while Thales is facing four counts.

Back in May 2021, Zuma signed his affidavit arguing for the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA’s) advocate Billy Downer’s recusal from the arms deal trial.

Zuma claimed prosecutors were conspiring against him and the case postponed to give Zuma’s legal team an extension to file an affidavit outlining their reasons for demanding Downer’s withdrawal.

The application was presented before Judge Piet Koen in July 2021, with Zuma losing the special-plea bid to have Downer recused in October.

At the time, Judge Koen dismissed the 14 grounds raised by Zuma’s legal team as they were based on speculation and ordered that the corruption trial proceed.

Judge Koen found that Zuma’s demand for acquittal in terms of section 106(1)(h) Criminal Procedure Act was incorrect.

“The ultimate question to be answered is therefore not whether the prosecutor is not independent or not impartial or biased or not sufficiently independent or impartial, but whether the accused will ultimately receive a fair trial”.

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The arms deal trial – which has dragged on for nearly two decades – was initially set to resume on 11 April 2022.

The Judiciary, however, on Monday confirmed the case will continue at the KwaZulu-Natal division of the High Court on 31 January 2022.

Back in 2021, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) also upheld a previous High Court ruling that Zuma was liable to pay his own legal fees.

In its judgment, the SCA put the total figure so far at around R25 million.

READ MORE HERE: Arms deal trial set to add to Zuma’s massive legal bills

Additional reporting by Thapelo Lekabe and Bernadette Wicks