Zuma finally gets date for corruption trial … but will there be ‘hurdles’?

Former President Jacob Zuma will finally have his day in court and is expected to face trial – 20 years after he was first charged with Arms Deal corruption.

Judge Nkosinathi Chili on Thursday confirmed that KwaZulu-Natal High Court Judge President Thoba Portia Poyo-Dlwati had allocated dates from April to September 2025 for Zuma’s trial.

Zuma was back in the KZN High Court in Pietermaritzburg for a final trial date to be set.

However, Judge Nkosinathi Chili postponed the case against Zuma to 29 August for another pre-trial conference.

Zuma’s arms deal prosecutor Billy Downer told Chili that the State and French arms manufacturer Thales had also agreed that the case could proceed for three weeks from November this year, but Zuma’s legal representation, advocate Dali Mpofu indicated that the former president was “not available at all” at that time,” News24 reported.

Zuma was not in court for Thursday morning’s hearing.

Delaying tactics

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said the State hoped there would be no further delays in the case.

Mhaga said they can never rule out the possibility of Zuma mounting another hurdle to delay his arms deals corruption trial.

“We can never rule out the possibility of Mr Zuma mounting another hurdle for this matter not to proceed. It has been a trend, it’s on record, even by Judge Kuhn that this appears to be a delaying tactic on their part, that is Mr Zuma rather.”

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Day in court

Mhaga said legal recourse does not allow Zuma to appeal the dismissal and that the state is ready to proceed with the trial.

“It does not in the sense that  the judgement itself is not dispositive of the matter. They can still deal with this matter at the end of the trial, but let them allow MR Zuma to have his day in court. He’s been pleading publicly that he wants his day in court so that he can prove his innocence.

“This is an opportunity now on 14 April that he can stand there and defend himself against this allegations which we believe we will sustain,” Mhaga said.

Zuma’s lawyer said they applied to appeal the dismissal of his latest bid to remove his arms deal prosecutor Downer from the case.

Zuma was declared trial-ready three years ago, but the matter has been delayed by his repeated efforts to force the removal of Downer.

Stalingrad strategy

The State in court papers said it is adamant Zuma’s latest appeal application is “manifestly an abuse of court process” and yet another manifestation of his “Stalingrad defence strategy” that it contends has “the improper intent and purpose of delaying justice in this matter, as evidenced by successive litigation since 2005 aimed at postponing this trial”.

“This prosecution has endured delays exceeding 15 years,” the state said,

In March, Judge Chili presiding dismissed  Zuma’s bid to force the removal Downer.

This was the second time Zuma had tried and failed to remove Downer from his arms deal corruption trial.

Chili dismissed Zuma’s latest bid to remove Downer as his prosecutor after finding that the former president failed to show that Downer’s continued presence as his prosecutor would violate his fair trial rights.

“Having heard submissions made by counsel, the relevant case law and most importantly the four pillars relied upon by Mr Zuma, I am not persuaded that Mr Zuma succeeded in establishing that the retention of Mr Downer as the prosecutor in this matter could prejudice his right to a fair trial [as] enshrined in section 35, subsection 3, of the Constitution.

“I therefore make the following order: the application for the removal of Mr Downer as the public prosecutor in the criminal prosecution of Mr Zuma and Thales South Africa is dismissed,” Chili ruled.

Chili did not provide reasons for the decision saying he will share them in his final judgment at the end of the trial.

Mpofu said he had “detailed instructions” from the former president “to proceed with an application for leave to appeal,” the ruling.

Objection

Zuma objected to Downer leading his prosecution on behalf of National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), accusing the advocate of prosecutorial bias, claiming that Downer lacked the title to prosecute him.

In argument before Judge Chili in October last year, the state argued that Zuma’s latest bid to force the removal of Downer was already dead in the water, because the pillars of his case “have been repeatedly and emphatically dismissed” in six different court rulings.

Arms deal

The 81-year-old Zuma and French arms manufacturer Thales are facing multiple charges, including fraud‚ corruption, money laundering, and racketeering, in connection with the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal procurement concluded in the late 1990s while he was vice president.

It is the state’s case that Zuma was kept on a corrupt retainer by his former financial advisor, Schabir Shaik, who then used his political clout to further his own business interests.

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