Zuma’s arms deal trial sees another postponement
Former president Jacob Zuma will not see the inside of a court room just yet as the arms deal trial saw yet another postponement.
The latest postponement by the Pietermaritzburg High Court makes way for Zuma’s reconsideration application at a higher court to be finalised.
Last month, Zuma launched an application before the Supreme Court of Appeal in a bid to have the court reconsider an earlier judgment on State prosecutor Billy Downer's recusal from the corruption case.
But the SCA is yet to attend to the matter, halting proceedings at the high court where the trial is set to get underway.
On Tuesday, Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Piet Koen postponed the corruption case to a holding date of August 1 to establish if Zuma’s appeal has been dealt with.
If the appeal has been resolved then the matter will go ahead on August 15.
Spokesperson for the Jacob Zuma Foundation Mzwanele Manyi maintains the politician is ready for his day in court.
“The 1st of August is also based on all kinds of hopeful thinking. One hopeful thinking is that there would be a decision from the SCA. Hopeful decision number 2 is that the SCA would probably dismiss again. Hopeful number 3 is that even the Constitutional Court might even refuse to hear us, as it were,” Manyi said speaking outside the court in KZN.
“These are worrisome assumptions to begin with, even though they look reasonable but they are all negative but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.”
The 80-year-old former head of state is accused of taking bribes from French defence giant Thales.
He faces 16 counts of fraud, graft, and racketeering over the purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and equipment from five European arms firms.
But Manyi told journalists Zuma was the least of the State’s worries.
“What South Africa is not aware of right now is that as we speak here and now, on the indictment sheet of president Zuma we are only talking about R4 million so this excitement by the whole country is a misguided excitement to say we are going to get to the bottom of this because the real culprits are not even in the space.
“President Zuma is a small fry in the big scheme of things here,” Manyi added.
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