State says delays in Zuma case not their doing

Prosecutor  Andrew Breytenbach  has told the Pietermaritzburg High Court that part of the reason for the delay in the corruption case against former president Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thales, was a request by Zuma’s legal team for documents in the State’s possession. The State has started making arguments in it’s response to Zuma and Thales’ application for a permanent stay of prosecution.

Breytenbach says before the State could hand over the documents that were requested, it had to consider whether they were not privileged.

He says this was followed by a very long responding affidavit by Zuma’s lawyers which the state had to carefully consider.

Listen to Breytenbach below:

Meanwhile, Political commentator, William Mpofu from the University of Witwatersrand has called for the interests of society to also be considered in the corruption case against former president Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thales. The legal teams of Zuma and Thales are applying for a permanent stay of prosecution on charges of corruption and racketeering in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. The case stems from the multi-billion rands arms deal in 1999.

Mpofu says the public deserves to hear the truth.

“Ethically, we are now speaking in moral terms, there is a mass of people out there that have a vested interest, that need to be told the truth, to understand what happened and find closure in this intersection of these three powerful provinces. So it’s important to think about the powerless.”