Riyaz Patel
The KwaZulu-Natal High Court has dismissed Jacob Zuma’s application for a permanent stay of prosecution relating to the multi-billion rand arms deal, opening the door for the former president to be tried on 18 charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering.
The High Court sitting in Pietermaritzburg handed down judgment Friday in the stay of prosecution application lodged by Zuma and his co-accused, French arms dealer Thales.
The matter is set down for trial from October 15.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) argued that Zuma’s legal teams had employed every conceivable trick in the book to delay the matter.
The NPA also submitted that extraneous litigation surrounding the case – including a successful Democratic Alliance (DA) court bid which secured the release of the so-called ‘spy tapes‘ – had delayed the trial for years.
The DA, in welcoming the court’s decision, said Zuma has a case
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