By The fraud, corruption and racketeering case against former President Jacob Zuma and French arms company, Thales, has been postponed to July 19 at the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
They have been charged in connection with the 1999 multi-billion rand arms deal.
Addressing the court earlier, counsel for Thales- Samantha Jackson- provided a brief and broad explanation of the basis of her client’s defense.
She said: “The alleged specific corruption as a racketing act, it is also alleged that the second accused corruptly entered into an agreement with (Shabir) Shaik and or the alleged enterprise the first accused to pay a bribe to the first accused. It is denied that the second accused entered into the alleged agreement. The alleged money laundering as a racketeering act. It is alleged that the second accused entered into the alleged agreement with a money laundering enterprise to disguise the payment of R250 000 to the first accused in terms of the first bribe agreement. It is denied that the 2nd accused entered into the alleged money laundering agreement. Count 3 and the alternative counts thereto is the so-called general corruption count and duplicates the alleged corrupt acts relied upon in the racketeering count.”
Meanwhile, Judge Piet Koen has asked Zuma’s defence to remain within the permissible limits of what is allowed to be presented in court before the special plea is officially heard on July 19.
Koen was responding to a request from Zuma’s Advocates Thabani Masuku and Dali Mpofu for the lengthy delivery of a statement that elaborates on the contents of Zuma’s special plea
Koen cautioned the defense against repeating the allegations in the affidavit.
“The most important thing in that he’s complaining about the unfair trial rights, is that there was political intelligence interference because he is a political leader, he has a significant constituency of people who must understand why he is here. I was simply expressing my understanding of what has been conveyed in the papers, these things happen in language. The purpose at the moment is for you to disclose the bases of the defence, that the legal bases I can appreciate, that it is tied up with some political consideration. This is not the opportunity for an accused person to state his version, it is not evidence.”
Meanwhile the African National Congress (ANC) says it has set up an appeals committee for those who want to oppose decisions of the party’s Integrity Commission.
ANC Deputy Secretary-General Jesse Duarte revealed this during a media briefing on Tuesday.Duarte says there is no appeal process for the step aside rule and temporary suspension, as Section 25 of the party’s constitution did not create room for it.
She has reaffirmed that the step aside resolution is not there to punish party members but to protect the party, as well as to give the accused space and time to deal with legal matters.
Duarte says, “Rule 2070 under which the Secretary-General is suspended does not have an appeals components, however, any matter that goes to the Integrity Commission may ask a person to step aside. We’ve now put in place an appeals team to deal with that so the Secretary-General and others may appeal in that committee based on findings of the Integrity Commission but not on Rule 2570, it’s a clause that protects the ANC.”
Suspended ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule is challenging his suspension in court next month.
However, Duarte says the NWC opposes Magashule’s urgent application to set aside his suspension.
“The NWC supported the application to oppose the urgent application by Magashule to set aside his temporal suspension in terms of rule 2570 of the ANC constitution. The NWC also discussed the possibility of investigating disciplinary action against some members of the ANC. I want to explain the DC process of the party without giving names because that disadvantages the people involved and l see there are names in the statement which is unfortunate.”
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