The state has argued in the Pietermaritzburg High Court that former president Jacob Zuma’s application for the court to call witnesses to determine if there was political meddling in his case, is foreign to South African law.
Zuma and French arms company Thales are facing charges of corruption, racketeering and money laundering in connection with the 1999 multi-billion rand arms deal.
State prosecutor advocate Wim Trengove has told the court that the defence wants an inquiry into issues that the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled on in 2017.
“There are no materials dispute or fact. He [Zuma] is not asking for an opportunity to produce any other evidence. He realises that conspiracy theories do not stand up against the credible first hand reputation of these conspiracy theories. Therefore he asks for a fresh judiciary initiated enquiry into the question whether he has a special defence,” adds Trengove.
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On Tuesday, Judge Piet Koen ruled that the application for advocate Downer’s recusal could continue in Zuma’s absence for the sake of convenience.
The court has heard that Zuma is still in hospital in Gauteng but is able to follow the court proceedings virtually.
Legal expert Mpumelelo Zikalala says the case can continue without the applicant.
“The Criminal Procedure Act does allow in certain circumstances when an application has been made – it is easy for you to say this is where we are coming from with this application. There is no prejudice that is going to be suffered by the accused to proceed without the accused being present especially in instances where the majority of the proceedings are going to [be] legal submissions in nature,” explains Zikalala.
Below is the full interview with Legal expert Mpumelelo Zikalala:
