Panafrican News Agency

South Africa: Zuma to learn his fate on Friday

Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Wednesday confirmed that it is ready to rule on former president Jacob Zuma’s application for a permanent stay of prosecution in a high-profile corruption case has been successful.

French arms company Thales has also asked the court to grant it the same relief.

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.

The NPA has 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.

A decision was again taken to prosecute Zuma in 2005 but withdrawn in 2009 due to submissions made by Zuma about so-called “spy tapes” involving Leonard McCarthy, the former boss of the Scorpions crime-fighting unit which investigated him.

State Attorney Wim Trengrove said Zuma had used a consistent pattern of litigation, designed ultimately to delay prosecution and it was conducted at public expense and costing taxpayers between US$1 million and US$2 million a day.
-0- PANA CU/AR 9Oct2019