Pietermaritzburg – The National Prosecuting Authority on Thursday outlined in court how it believed former president Jacob Zuma had used extensive litigation, known as the Stalingrad defence, to delay being prosecuted on fraud and corruption charges.
He said the litigation was conducted at public expense and cost between R16 million and R32 million, calling it “luxurious litigation designed to delay”. The defence teams for Zuma and Thales made their submissions on Monday and Tuesday respectively on why the case should be permanently dropped, citing, among other reasons, an unreasonable delay in prosecution, which they said was unconstitutional.
Although investigations into the arms deal started in the early 2000s, Zuma was first charged in June 2005 after the conviction of his former financial advisor Schabir Shaik on two counts of corruption and one of fraud. The NPA head at the time, Bulelani Ngcuka, said he did not believe there was a reasonable prospect of winning the case, despite one of the lead prosecutors, advocate Billy Downer, believing otherwise.
The conversations, held after Ngcuka had resigned, were about the timing of charging Zuma. This was alleged to amount to political interference as Zuma was at the time contesting former president Thabo Mbeki for the leadership of the ruling ANC and ultimately that of the country.
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