President Ramaphosa must confirm government will not pay for Jacob Zuma’s latest legal tricks

15 October 2019

The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes former President Jacob Zuma’s intention to file an application for leave to appeal the KwaZulu Natal High Court’s judgement dismissing his application for a permanent stay of prosecution as it relates to the corruption charges he faces. This is yet another conniving move by Zuma to avoid jail for the over 783 counts of fraud, corruption and racketeering as it relates to his role in the infamous Arms Deal.

For over 10 years, the people of South Africa have been forced to pay for Zuma’s legal fees as he has used every trick in the book to delay the inevitable. Last year, following a case brought by the DA, the North Gauteng High Court ruled that the state will not fund Jacob Zuma’s legal fees in his defence of his role in the corruption that has afflicted our country. Moreover, the court ordered Jacob Zuma to pay back the money already incurred by the state for his pending cases.

I will today write to President Ramaphosa, requesting (1) that he confirms in writing that the state will not pay a cent towards Jacob Zuma’s latest stalling tactic in the form of his appeal, and (2) an update as to the process made by the state in recouping public money used over the last decade to fund Zuma’s decade-long plan to escape accountability. It has been almost a year since the North Gauteng High Court ordered Zuma to pay back the monies spent on his legal fees and the people of South Africa deserve to know whether this has happened yet.

We maintain that President Ramaphosa should have done the right thing and made Zuma pay for his own defence, without the courts forcing him to do so. Moreover, that he should have cancelled the agreement between Zuma and the Presidency in which the latter will cover the former’s legal costs relating to corruption charges.

The DA is committed to seeing justice done, and we will continue to fight for accountability at all levels of government. We will not relent until Jacob Zuma is held to account for his corrupt actions.

Issued by Mmusi Maimane, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, 15 October 2019