Former President Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thales return to the High Court in Pietermaritzburg on Monday to continue hearings of their fraud and corruption case involving a US$2 billion arms deal some years ago.
Zuma and the French arms firm Thales are facing racketeering, money laundering and other corruption charges in connection with the multibillion arms deal which took place when Zuma was deputy president under President Thabo Mbeki in 1999.
As the case resumed in court on Monday, the former president also filed an appeal at the Constitutional Court against last year’s High Court ruling dismissing his special plea for the recusal of lead prosecutor Billy Downer, whom he accused of personal bias against him and for leaking his medical records to a journalist.
In September, the Apex Court rejected Zuma’s appeal in his quest to overturn an earlier decision by the then president of the Supreme Court of Appeal, Mandisa Maya, who dismissed his appeal as having no merit.
During Zuma’s last court appearance, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said it intended to oppose the application calling for the removal of Downer’s from the case.
“There is no indication on whether Mr. Zuma will be here [in court] or not. But we don’t want any more postponement in this matter,” NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said.
“We would like to proceed with the matter as we had indicated in the past that there is no merit to their application,” Mhaga said.
He added: “We will vigorously oppose the application. Now that they supplemented accusing him of leaking the medical records to the media. We dispute that.”
“Mr. Downer is a prosecutor of integrity. He maintained the confidentiality of all documentation that went through to him. So in essence we will vigorously oppose Mr. Zuma’s application to have him removed from the corruption trial,” he said.
Monday’s date has been set down as a holding date by Judge Piet Koen pending the finalisation of Zuma’s appeal at the Constitutional Court in his pursuit for the recusal of Downer.
NM/as/APA