Faizel Patel – 10/08/2021
Veteran researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal school of law, Mary de Haas says former President Jacob Zuma’s virtual application to postpone his arms deal corruption trial is putting off the day of justice.
Zuma was set to appear before the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday morning, but he was hospitalized for a routine check-up last week.
Zuma is currently serving a 15-month jail term at the Estcourt Correctional Services Centre for contempt of court over his refusal to appear before the state capture commission of inquiry.
Speaking to Radio Islam, Haas says Zuma wanted his day in court, but is now trying to stay out of the dock.
“Months, years ago he said no he’d be prepared to go prison and then of course he didn’t want to go to prison. So, it’s a kind of shifting scenario, they’re kind of stringing everybody along and court delays are a prime way of kind of putting of the day of justice.”
Following the deadly violence in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the country is tense as supporters of Zuma already warned of more violence ahead of his corruption case.
Haas says police are under pressure.
“We hope that intelligence has improved, but there’s all sorts of reasons why we should be worried about that to because I think because you need to understand that the police themselves are very deeply divided. In this province anyway there is a lot of Zuma supporting police.”
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says Zuma’s legal team would virtually make an application to postpone the case as he was still admitted to hospital.
Listen to the interview with Mary de Haas
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