Skip to main content

No 'day in court' for Zuma as supporters take Durban

The trial of South Africa's ex-president Jacob Zuma was postponed for two months on Friday pending his legal challenge to the resurrection of decade-old corruption charges.
Outside the Durban High Court, thousands of Mr Zuma's supporters from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and other organisations brought the Indian Ocean port city to a standstill.
Zuma supporters rally around a stage set up outside the Durban High Court
The ANC Women's League, Youth League and Umkhonto we Sizwe Veterans' Association were present, along with the Black land First Campaign, National Interfaith Council of South Africa, the Commission for Religious Affairs. Revellers wore ANC t-shirts and other merchandise in defiance of warnings by Police Minister Bheki Cele
Former minister Des van Rooyen and Eastern Cape ANC leader Andile Lungisa accompanied Mr Zuma to the doors of the court. Inside he sat smiling a few feet apart from Christine Guerrier, a representative of French arms firm Thint, from whom Mr Zuma is accused of taking kickbacks in return for a 2.6 billion defence contract signed in 1997.
Judge Themba Sishi agreed to the defence request for a postponement while its challenge to the National Prosecuting Authority's decision to reinstate the charges it dropped in 2009 — after Judge Chris Nicholson threw the case out of court, saying it was driven by a “baleful political influence.”
In an echo of the the first trial, when the prosecution repeatedly requested adjournments as its case was not ready, Prosecutor Billy Downer said the NPA would be ready to go to trial until November. He agreed to the postponement while Mr Zuma's challenge was heard, along with the SA Natives Forum's application for a permanent stay of prosecution.
Following his brief 20-minute court appearance, Mr Zuma took to the stage to address the throng of supporters in his mother tongue of isiZulu, flanked by political, community and religious leaders.
He reminded the crowd that his first court appearance on the historical charges was in 2005. “This case is back because of politics!” he declared as quoted in a translation by the Huffington Post South. “Opposition parties. Our democracy is wondrous ― they push their opposition not in Parliament but in the courts, where there should be no politics.”
Mr Zuma pointed out that he was not even part of the Pretoria government when the Thint arms deal was signed in the late 90s, but was serving as a Member of the Executive Council in KwaZulu Natal. “Maybe they mean I was there in spirit,” he said. “Someone will have to tell me then, what did I do?”
“The problem now, the one I'm hated and vilified for, is that freedom without economic freedom is not complete,” he said. “Blacks are now saying it's enough. As I am going to court, I reiterate poverty must end, radical economic transformation must happen.”
The leader closed his speech by leading the crowd in song, including his anti-apartheid struggle era standard Umshini Wami (Bring me my Machine Gun).
Ramaphosa's revenge
But in a a clear attempt to pull the rug from under Mr Zuma's feet, President Cyril Ramaphosa's office said later it was withdrawing its appeal against a court order for the former president to pay 10 million rand in legal costs. Those costs were awarded against him after his failed court bid to have former public protector Thuli Madonsela's swansong the 'State of Capture' report set aside.
“The current President is not liable in that the punitive costs were against the former President in his personal capacity and as such we do not purport to act on the former President’s behalf in this notice,” a presidency statement said.
Money for old rope
The report, rushed out in the final days of Ms Madonsela's tenure, backs opposition claims that Mr Zuma's government was in the pocket of the Gupta business family. It was written by British consultancy firm Price Waterhouse Coopers for a fee of around 20 million rand ― roughly the same as a $500,000 donation the state ombuds received as a donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Mr Ramaphosa was sworn in as president in February after Mr Zuma resigned under pressure from the ANC's national executive. He has already made himself unpopular with party members and the ANC's allied trade union federation COSATU by imposing a raft of austerity measures.  

Most popular

The mystery of the Guanches

The origins and language of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands remain a mystery, writes Dr Sabina Goralski Filonov Translation by James Tweedie The guanches, the aboriginals of the Canary Islands whose origin, lost in the mists of time, still arouses intense and passionate debate and great controversy about their origins and the how the seven Canary Islands were populated – which according to some studies occurred between 10,000 and 8,000 years BC. Literally, the word ‘Guan’ means man or person and ‘Chenech’ or ‘Chinet’ is applied to the island of Tenerife, thus meaning a man or inhabitant of Tenerife – although according to Núñez de la Peña, the Spanish named them the Guanchos during the conquest of the islands. But with the passage of time, experts in the subject are questioning whether the word Guanche was used to designate the primitive inhabitants of all the islands in the pre-Hispanic period.  The term ‘Guanche’ has also ceased to be applied to the distin
Read more

Los Gigantes Beach Landslide Tragedy - Three Days of Mourning for Victims

SHATTERED IDYLL: Los Guios beach in Los Gigantes in happier times. SANTIAGO del Teide council declared three days of official mourning after two women were killed in a landslide on Los Gigantes beach on November 1. by James Tweedie The local authority announced the period of mourning following an emergency council meeting on Monday November 2, called in response to the tragic deaths of 57-year old British holidaymaker Marion O’Hara and 34-year old Canarian hotel worker Maria Vanesa Arias Romera. Flags at Santiago del Teide town hall were flown at half mast for the period of mourning, and all official functions observed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims. The two women were killed when 130-foot wide stretch of the cliffs above the tiny Los Guios beach collapsed from a height of about 200 feet, burying them beneath rubble up to 15 feet deep, according to a spokesman for the Guardia Civil which was conducting the investigation into the accident. The landslide occurred about 3pm
Read more

African Teachers Against Privatisation

Teachers from across Africa urged the continental bloc to halt the privatisation of national education systems today. Unions affiliated to the Education International (EI) federation pressed the African Union (AU) to stop the spread of sordid tin-shack schools funded by the world's richest man. The EI statement, issued in the Ethiopian capital and seat of the AU Addis Ababa warned: “we are witnessing a shift away from education as a public good,” with “a reduction in education budgets and increased privatisation of education.” “This is not the Africa we want,” said EI Africa Committee Chair Christian Addai-Poku, referring to the AU's 'Agenda 2063' plan. “Quality education for the public good is an indispensable condition for the development of our continent and the realisation of the full potential of all its people.” The teaching unions criticised the rapid growth across the continent of ‘low-cost’ private schools, which they said were “notorious for empl
Read more

UNIONS UNITE FOR GENERAL STRIKE

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Tuesday June 8 2010 EXCEPTIONAL trade union unity failed to ensure a big turnout in Tenerife for Tuesday's strike against public sector pay cuts. by JAMES TWEEDIE In a rare display of non-sectarian coordination, members of more than ten trade union federations took part in the general strike across public services. They included the big national CCOO and UGT, the smaller anarchist CNT and CGT, the CSIF and ANPE, and regional federations Intersindical Canaria, FSOC, SEPCA, EA-Canarias and INSUCAN. Police and judicial unions CEP, SUP, UFP and STAJ also joined the strike, which was supported by political parties such as the United Left (IU), social movement umbrella group Assembly for Tenerife (AXT) and pro-public health service campaigners ADSPC. The dispute is over plans by the Socialist Workers Party of Spain (PSOE) government of prime minister José Luis Zapatero to cut public sector wages and pension rights in response to the economic crisis. Despite the i
Read more

Homeless dogs’ home fights for compensation

Dingo Dogs owner Phil Nelson at his since-demolished home. DOGS’ home owner Phil Nelson has vowed to take legal action following his eviction from his Dingo Dogs animal sanctuary in August. by James Tweedie Indian-born Mr Nelson, along with former girlfriend and Dingo Dogs treasurer Leigh Crouch were left homeless by the court-ordered eviction and have been sharing a small hut in the mountains near Las Chafiras with ten dogs and three cats ever since. Mr Nelson’s dispute with his former landlord began in September 2004, after he officially registered his rented hillside finca as an animal sanctuary.  It was a requirement of his registration that he keep proper financial records, including receipts for payment of rent. Mr Nelson says that despite having a rental contract and paying his rent “as regular as clockwork” for years, his landlord never gave him a receipt even after he began asking for one every month in 2004.  In May 2005, after his landlord had refused
Read more