Former South African president Zuma appears in court again
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – Former President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday appeared in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg where his fraud and corruption trial was postponed to February for pre-trial proceedings.
The court heard that Zuma's legal team intends to apply for leave to appeal last week's dramatic dismissal of the application which he and co-accused, French arms dealer Thales, lodged for a permanent stay of prosecution. He is required to file his papers in the leave to appeal bid before 1 November. That matter will be heard on 22 November in the same court.
Last week’s ruling marked a huge victory for the National Prosecuting Authority which claimed that Zuma used extensive litigation, a so-called “Stalingrad defence”, to delay being prosecuted on multi-million-dollar fraud and corruption charges relating to South Africa’s arms procurement scandal in the 1990s.
The case involves 783 questionable payments Zuma allegedly received from the company in connection with the deal which saw the South African military purchasing jet fighters, ships and submarines.
Following Tuesday’s hearing, Zuma addressed a small crowd of supporters outside the court and sang his favourite song “Umshini wami” which translates as “bring me my machine gun”.
-0- PANA CU/MA 15Oct2019
