The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) have a winnable case against the Presidency.
That is according to constitutional law expert, Dr Pierre De Vos.
He was reacting to threats by both parties to force former President Jacob Zuma to pay back money used for his legal fees relating to his corruption case.
Responding to a question by EFF leader, Julius Malema, in parliament last week President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed that the state paid more than R15 million towards Zuma’s case.
The DA and EFF insist that the 2006 agreement by the Presidency to pay Zuma’s legal fees was unlawful.
De Vos says the section used by the State Attorney to grant Zuma’s application for state funding does not cover usage of private legal teams.
“If the State Attorney him or herself was the attorney who assisted President Zuma, that would be covered by section 33 of the State Attorney’s Act. But the fact that they gave money to private lawyers, on the reading of the section, it wouldn’t really cover it. We will wait to see now if the court is going to look at this section and say maybe you can read word into it or whatever, but if the court takes just a plain meaning of the section, there is a chance that they may be successful actually.”
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