President Zuma's personal lawyer paid R2.3 million
President Jacob Zuma's personal lawyer, Michael Hulley, has been paid over R2.3 million from the public purse to defend litigation initiated by the DA to obtain the reduced record of the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) 2009 decision to drop charges against Jacob Zuma - the ‘Spy Tapes' case - a reply to a DA parliamentary question has revealed.
This is in addition to the R1.3 million in respect of costs paid to the DA in terms of an order by the Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA) when the President lost an earlier round of this on-going legal dispute.
At this stage, we therefore know that in total, the ‘Spy Tapes' case, has cost the public over R3.6 million. This probably does not include the fees paid to other private Advocates, including Kemp J Kemp and his team. It certainly does not include the costs paid to Adv. Paul Kennedy and his juniors who appeared for the NPA.
The DA will submit further parliamentary to ascertain all costs associated with the ‘Spy Tapes' case.
It is absolutely disgraceful that the public has to continue coughing up to fund President Zuma's continued attempts to avoid his day in court. If he is indeed innocent, he must appear in court to prove his innocence.