Judgment has been reserved in the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) application to review and set aside the agreement between the Presidency and former President Jacob Zuma to cover his legal costs.
This after Zuma’s lawyer Advocate Thabani Masuku, the DA’s lawyer Advocate, Sean Rosenberg and Economic Freedom Fighter’s (EFF) Thembeka Ngcukaitobi concluded their arguments in the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.
The opposition parties filed court papers in late March, asking that a 2006 agreement the Presidency had signed over legal costs Zuma incurred for his criminal prosecution be set aside.
Deputy Judge president Aubrey Ledwaba postponed the matter until judgment was delivered.
“I would like, on behalf of my colleagues, to thank all counsels for detailed and very informative arguments that were made, which we think they will help us as we prepare the judgment. We’re going to postpone the matter, seal the deal for the judgment. We will try by all means to let this judgment be delivered before the end of this term,” says Ledwaba.
Meanwhile the DA’s James Selfe says his party does not mean to politick when it takes pominent persons to court.
“We bring a lot of litigation to court in the public interest and the interest of our voters. We do not do so for political motives and so for the last twelve or so years we brought a number of cases. We brought a case against the appointment of Mr Simelane as the national director of Public Prosecutions. We were not playing politics there. We were seeking to work out what is it to be a fit and proper person in that particular position. And in just the same way here we are not bringing this litigation against Mr Zuma for political purposes,” says Selfe.
