Former president Jacob Zuma, will on Friday appear in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on 16 charges of corruption, fraud, racketeering and money-laundering relating to the controversial arms deal.
Last month, the case was adjourned to allow the conclusion of a court case about state funding for Zuma’s legal costs.
Earlier this month, Zuma fired his long-time attorney Michael Hulley.
Advocate Kemp J Kemp‚ who acted for Zuma for over a decade, has also been replaced, allegedly due to Zuma’s inability to pay the mounting legal bills.
The adjournment was also aimed at affording Zuma’s co-accused, a French manufacturing company, time to make representations to the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) as to why it should not be prosecuted.
Legal expert, Advocate Makhosazane Mbonane believes the case may once again be delayed if the new legal team asks for time to familiarise itself with the case.
“There are a lot of things that can happen because we understand that the former President has parted ways with his former legal team. What usually happens is that there needs to be a handover to the former to the new legal team and they will need to go through all the documents. So I cannot speculate but there is likely an application for a postponement for the new legal team to consider the case fully because it is a very complex case,” explains Mbonane.
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