Former president Jacob Zuma has abandoned his final legal bid to permanently halt his corruption prosecution, meaning he is set to finally have his day in court after a 15-year delay.
His foundation confirmed late on Wednesday that the Constitutional Court had accepted Zuma’s withdrawal of the last-ditch bid to appeal the dismissal of his application for a permanent stay of prosecution.
But that does not mean all barriers to the trial going ahead have been removed.
French arms company Thales, which stands accused of offering a bribe in return for protection from potential investigation into corruption linked to SA’s notorious R60bn arms deal from the 1990s, lodged its own Constitutional Court appeal challenging then prosecutions head Shaun Abrahams’s decision to charge it alongside Zuma.
Its arguments were rejected by both the high and appeal courts, making the chances of successes at the highest court unlikely. As Thales needs to send a representative from France to attend, the trial might not proceed until Covid-19 travel restrictions are lifted.
The move marks a radical change in Zuma’s strategy. He has previously argued that delays and alleged political interference meant that he was unlikely to get a fair trial. It comes 10 days after the former president hired well-known lawyer Eric Mabuza, replacing Daniel Mantsha.
Mabuza has also represented former Old Mutual CEO Peter Moyo in his battle with the insurer that fired him in 2019 over alleged conflicts of interest.
Other high-profile clients have included former SA Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane.
‘Stalingrad tactics’
When he changed lawyers, Zuma’s foundation said he was doing so to prepare for the “biggest trial of his life”.
Zuma, who recently won the right to appeal a Pretoria high court decision that cut all state funding of his corruption trial costs, has previously been accused of so-called Stalingrad tactics, where the accused opposes anything presented by the other side and appeals every ruling, with a view to frustrating the prosecution.
The effectiveness of that strategy fell apart in December 2018 when the high court in Pretoria ruled that he was not entitled to state funding in a case that involved conduct that was not “furthering any government interest”.
It ruled that he be compelled to pay back what had been spent by the state, estimated at R16m.
In a one-page statement, his foundation said that Zuma “has always sought the opportunity to clear his name before our courts”.
According to a statement released by the foundation on Wednesday, Zuma welcomed the formal withdrawal of his Constitutional Court appeal, which “paves the way for him to prepare for the trial and demonstrate that he has never benefited from any arms deal corruption or tried to evade the trial”.
Zuma hoped that “his innocence will indeed be demonstrated for all to see”.
It also quoted him as saying that he hoped “our citizens will finally get some certainty and closure as to the real beneficiaries of the arms deal if any corruption in that regard did occur”.
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