Zuma attacks judiciary following cost order ruling in SCA
Former President Jacob Zuma has lashed out at the judiciary, accusing the courts of being part of a "political onslaught" against him.
According to a statement released by the Jacob Zuma Foundation on Saturday, punishing Zuma "has become a guarantee for a career in the judiciary".
The critique follows Friday's decision by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein to dismiss an attempt by Zuma to appeal a personal cost order impose on him by the High Court in Pretoria.
"While we did not expect any positive outcome from a South African court in a matter relating to President Zuma, we had hoped that our courts would have some decency to steer clear from politics,” the foundation said.
"We note that our courts have become part of the political onslaught against President Zuma, bending the law in order to serve political elites that seek to scapegoat President Zuma for all the ills that confront South Africa.”
The foundation also hit out at the media for its reaction to the announcement by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who chairs the commission of inquiry into state capture, that he had fathered a child with the sister of one of the former president’s wives.
"As if primed to descend on President Zuma and his lawyers, media houses were abuzz, falsely accusing President Zuma’s lawyers of using a private matter to fight a legal case.
"This was a deliberate diversion, sponsored to divert attention away from the source of the declaration, the Deputy Chief Justice himself.
"We have already expressed our reservations about the appropriateness of media statements by the Deputy Chief Justice and we maintain that these statements are reserved for President Zuma and no other witness.
"They are part of the pattern that has emerged from our courts, to develop jurisprudence that seeks to deal with President Zuma and those thought to be associated and aligned to him.”
Zuma is engaged in a battle with Zondo and the commission as it moves to force him to return to the commission to explain his role in state capture.
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This comes after numerous calls by former president Jacob Zuma for the chairperson of the commission to recuse himself. Previously, Zuma's lawyers wrote to the commission claiming Zondo had shown bias against him. On Thursday revealed in a statement that he fathered a child with the sister of Zuma's estranged wife, Thobeka Madiba, in the mid-90s.
