Jacob Zuma finally gets his wish – a trial

Former president Jacob Zuma has repeatedly insisted he wants his day in court on a corruption case – and that’s exactly what he will be getting after the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday dismissed his special plea challenging state advocate Billy Downer and the National Prosecuting Authority’s title to prosecute him.

Judge Piet Koen, presiding, found the grounds on which Zuma brought his special plea did not fit the requirements.

His claims that Downer was biased against him did not equate to a lack of title on the career prosecutor’s part, the judge found, putting the issue to bed and adjourning the case to April next year for the continuation of the trial.

Legal expert Dr Llewelyn Curlewis said, in theory at least, the trial now had to proceed.

“We are there at long last,” he said.

While Zuma could potentially challenge Tuesday’s ruling, it was unlikely the courts would hear such a challenge until the matter was finalised, he said.

“Our [Criminal Procedure Act] doesn’t facilitate a piecemeal approach,” he said. Curlewis did not believe a challenge to the ruling would be successful.

“I believe it was the right decision,” he said.

The trial officially kicked off in May, with Zuma and his co-accused in the case, French arms dealer Thales, both pleading not guilty to the charges of fraud and corruption.

What the court said

Judge Piet Koen

• “In adversarial criminal proceedings, such as ours, it is inevitable that prosecutors will be partisan. Their role in criminal prosecutions makes it inevitable that they will be perceived to be biased.
• “Mr Zuma has not been prosecuted because Mr Downer is insistent on prosecuting him, but because the NDPP (National Director of Public Prosecutions), obedient to the judgment of the SCA (Supreme Court of Appeal) in the spy tapes case, decided that his prosecution must continue.
• “There are no conditions attached to the order he submit to medical examination by a doctor or doctors of the state’s choice, to determine whether he is fit to attend court and stand trial.

Decade and a half of legal quicksteps

The allegations at the heart of the case against ex-president Jacob Zuma and French arms dealer Thales centre on a dodgy multibillion-rand arms deal struck in the ’90s.

They include that Zuma received an annual kickback of R500 000 through his former financial advisor, Schabir Shaik, in exchange for shielding Thales from investigations.

Shaik was found guilty of corruption in 2005. Then the state went after Zuma and Thales.

Their case was struck from the roll the following year, before being reinstated in 2007. In 2009, the National Prosecuting Authority withdrew the charges.

In 2017, however, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) overturned that decision.

In 2018, Zuma made representations that he should not be charged, disputing the allegations against him and insisting he did not have the requisite intent.

Zuma and Thales were again summoned to court.

Zuma then approached the high court with an application for a permanent stay of prosecution.

This was dismissed in 2019. He subsequently turned to the SCA in a bid to overturn the high court’s decision, but his petition was dismissed.

He also moved to approach the Constitutional Court, but last year withdrew that application.