Zuma forced to pay legal costs

A full bench of the High Court in Pretoria has ordered that former president Jacob Zuma must pay the legal costs for his attempts at challenging the remedial actions put forward by former public protector Thuli Madonsela.

Zuma’s application for leave to appeal has been dismissed along with the ruling that the costs must be paid.

In December 2017, Zuma got his lawers to file an application for leave to appeal the ruling ordering him to set up a commission of inquiry into state capture.

READ MORE: Judgment reserved in Zuma fees battle

On Wednesday, judgment was reserved in the DA and EFF’s applications aimed at forcing Zuma to pay for his own defence in his corruption and money laundering trial and pay back the between R17 million and R32 million already spent on him.

The DA and EFF asked the court to set aside a series of government decisions dating back to 2005 to pay for a private legal team to represent Zuma in his criminal trial and a series of related applications.

They also want the court to order Zuma to pay back the millions already spent on his legal teams, arguing that Zuma failed to honour repeated undertakings to pay back his legal fees if his various applications aimed at stopping his prosecution did not succeed.

None of Zuma’s attempts through the years – allegedly to avoid having his day in court – were successful and the criminal charges were reinstated in March following a series of adverse court rulings, including that the withdrawal of the charges in 2009 had been unconstitutional.

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