Former President Jacob Zuma has suffered yet another blow in his legal campaign to stop the 15-year-old corruption prosecution against him from going ahead — and it may be a fatal one.
The Supreme Court of Appeal last week dismissed his attempt to challenge the high court ruling that effectively paves the way for him to go on trial, without even granting him a hearing.
In a two-page order, the appeal court found that neither the former president nor his corruption co-accused, French arms company Thales, had any “reasonable prospect” of overturning the high court’s dismissal of their permanent stay of prosecution applications.
The court added that “there is no other compelling reason an appeal should be heard”.
Zuma stands accused of accepting hundreds of payments from his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik, in exchange for his support and promotion of Shaik’s business interests. It is the state’s case that Shaik facilitated a R500,000 a year bribe for Zuma from Thales, in exchange for Zuma’s “political protection” from any potential investigation of the multibillion-rand arms deal.
While Zuma says that the corruption, racketeering and tax evasion case against him has been fatally compromised by undue delay and political interference and cannot be allowed to continue, the high court in Pietermaritzburg found that he could raise these complaints during his trial.
The three judges hearing that case emphasised that any prejudice Zuma may have suffered as a result of the 15-year delay in his prosecution, which they found he and the state were equally responsible for, could not outweigh the seriousness of the charges he faces.
The appeal court found no reason to interfere with that decision.
Zuma now has three options: he can petition the president of the appeal court to reconsider the dismissal of his appeal application, he can seek to appeal to the Constitutional Court, or he can go on trial.
Given the unequivocal way in which the two appeal court judges last week dismissed Zuma’s application for leave to appeal, the Constitutional Court is unlikely to agree to hear his case. Zuma’s lawyers must know this, but, by petitioning the appeal court president or approaching the Constitutional Court, Zuma’s legal team will be able to get him something that he desperately needs: time.
That is because after a series of bruising court rulings Zuma has not only lost his previously untrammelled access to state funding of his defence costs, but has been ordered to repay over R16m already spent on those costs.
He has also been ordered to personally pay millions spent in his failed bid to overturn then public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report — a ruling that he has been given the right to challenge by the Supreme Court of Appeal. He is trying to persuade that same court to allow him to appeal against the ruling that cut government funding of his corruption trial.
For now, though, it would appear that Zuma does not have the millions he would need to defend himself against a case that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) maintains is rock solid.
Lead prosecutor Billy Downer has previously stated that the NPA would be ready to ready to proceed with Zuma’s trial in April. He has told the appeal court that the state’s case against the former president was founded on a recently updated forensic audit of his finances, and therefore would not be compromised by the 15-year trial delay.
None of this is good news for Zuma.
He has the added worry of a suspended arrest warrant hanging over his head, after the high court refused to accept a “sick note” written by his doctor as evidence that justified his failure to show up for a mandatory court appearance.
With no money, almost no chance of getting his corruption prosecution appeal heard and a court that seems unwilling to accept what he says is poor health, Zuma appears to have been painted into a tight corner.
It seems evident that his primary focus can no longer be on the legal impossibility of stopping his prosecution, but rather preparing to fight a long and expensive trial.
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