Zuma must pay costs for failed attempt to stop state capture report

President Zuma launched an application the day before the report was released in October 2016, saying that he wasn't given an opportunity to respond to the accusations levelled against him.

Zuma then withdrew his application on the second day of the multimillion-rand court battle, causing opposition parties to demand Zuma that pay the legal bill himself. 

Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo said Zuma was an "unreasonable and irrational litigant".

Mlambo said that it was clear that the president had been aware of serious allegations of state capture against him, but did nothing to state his case.

Mlambo added that Zuma should have aborted his application and that the continuing with the application amounted to an abuse of the judiciary.

He said a punitive cost order is not applicable as tax payers would have to bear the cost of an application that was founded on Zuma’s own creation of urgency.

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane welcomed the judgement, saying the president must stop with his delay tactics and the misuse of tax payer's money.

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Maimane called for a judiciary commission of inquiry into state capture to be implemented to ensure the president finally has his day in court.

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) secretary general, Godrich Gardee, said they are looking forward to "auctioning (the president’s private home) Nkandla and giving that money back to the people of South Africa"