Judge likely to postpone Zuma’s case, say legal experts

More delays are on the cards in former president Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial.

The hearing of Zuma’s special plea to have state advocate Billy Downer, who is leading the prosecution, kicked off the case was set down from today until Friday.

But the former president, who is currently serving his 15-month contempt of court sentence at Estcourt Prison, was taken to hospital last week.

And yesterday, the Jacob Zuma Foundation tweeted following confirmation from the department of correctional services that Zuma was still in hospital, “his and the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] legal teams are discussing making a joint approach to the judge for a postponement of this week’s proceedings”.

Advocate Mthunzi Mhaga of the NPA yesterday confirmed Zuma’s legal team would be making “a substantive application for a postponement” and that this would take place virtually.

“It is unfortunate that there will be a postponement as our team is ready to argue the special plea as planned but these are circumstances beyond our control,” he said.

Legal expert Dr Llewelyn Curlewis said yesterday the court was in a corner.

“If the medical situation of the former president is of such a nature that he is not able to physically attend the hearing, then obviously the court will be inclined to postpone the matter until such time as he recovers,” Curlewis said.

He cited to the Criminal Procedure Act.

“It requires that as far as possible an accused person should attend his own hearing to face the consequences and also to face his accusers. And that is the point of departure in any criminal litigation. So I do not think they’ll be in a position to proceed under these circumstances.”

But Curlewis said the trial could not be delayed “indefinitely”, again citing the same Act.

“It provides for a summary inquiry to be instituted by the presiding officer to investigate the reasons for the delays. And if the court then finds it’s a direct result of the defence and Zuma, then it can order the matter to proceed, for example, in absentia.

“Or the court can take other steps to ensure the accused attends court, even issuing a warrant for his arrest.”

Curlewis again emphasised, however, that if there was medical evidence to suggest Zuma was genuinely not in a position to attend court that the judge would have little choice but to grant a postponement.

The department of correctional services issued a statement on Friday, indicating that Zuma had been admitted to an outside hospital for “medical observation”.

It’s unclear why he is still in hospital, though, with the Jacob Zuma Foundation having issued a statement saying he was “attend ing to his annual medical routine check-up”.

It said at the time there was “no need to be alarmed” and spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi was quoted by News24 as insisting this was not a delaying tactic.

Zuma’s corruption case relates to the multibillion-rand arms deal struck when Zuma was KwaZulu-Natal MEC for economic development in the ’90s.

Among the allegations is that the former president received an annual kickback of R500 000 – paid via his former financial advisor, Schabir Shaik – in exchange for shielding French arms dealer Thales from an investigation.

Zuma is said to have accepted 783 dodgy payments from Thales.

Zuma faces 16 counts, including fraud‚ corruption, money laundering and racketeering, and Thales faces four counts.

– bernadettew@citizen.co.za