African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma is seeking to persuade a court to dismiss corruption and fraud charges against him — and remove the last boulder on his rocky road to becoming South African president.
Zuma supporters danced to his trademark anti-apartheid song, Bring Me My Machine Gun, at an all-night vigil ahead of yesterday’s court hearing. Thousands more were expected to arrive during the night.
The 66-year-old former guerrilla fighter stands accused, along with a French arms company, of bribery in a multibillion-rand arms deal concluded in 1999.
PHOTO: EPA
But Zuma and his supporters say the case amounts to political persecution and should be dismissed.
If Judge Chris Nicholson agrees, he could drop all charges against Zuma. But if not, Zuma could face trial later this year — although it is doubtful that any process would be complete before next year’s legislative elections, which could complicate his presidential ambitions. In South Africa, the president is chosen by the party that wins the elections.
Zuma’s lawyers are expected to argue in High Court yesterday that the case has dragged on too long and is unlawful and unconstitutional. They maintain that Zuma’s right to a speedy and fair trial have been violated.
Charges were filed against Zuma in 2005 and then thrown out the next year on a technicality. But within days of him being elected ANC president last year, the National Prosecuting Authority said it had new evidence and filed racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud charges.
ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe accused the Prosecuting Authority of denying Zuma “fair and equal treatment.”
“This matter is not simply about Jacob Zuma. It is about the principles and practices upon which we intend to build a new society, one that is democratic, just and equitable,” Motlanthe said in an editorial on the ANC’s Web site.
Zuma has become very popular with South Africans, many of whom want change after 10 years under President Thabo Mbeki, and Zuma’s supporters say he has been made a scapegoat in a scandal that reaches the presidency.
The Sunday Times reported on Sunday that Mbeki accepted a 30 million rand (US$4 million) bribe from a German shipbuilding company, and gave part of this to Zuma and the rest to the ANC. Mbeki’s spokesman said there was no basis to the report.
Zuma ousted Mbeki as ANC leader in December and, given the party’s huge majority, is expected to succeed his rival as president following next year’s elections.
Zuma, who was a leader of the exiled ANC military wing during apartheid, grew up in poverty and without formal schooling. He strikes a chord with the young and unemployed, speaking their language rather than spouting Shakespearean sonnets like Mbeki.
The powerful trade union confederation and the ANC Youth League said their members would “kill” for their hero Zuma.
Zuma also has reached out to Afrikaners, who shoulder most blame for racial segregation and now feel the most marginalized, as well as to poor whites. He has tried to reassure big business and foreign investors who fear South Africa will lurch to the left.
Critics accuse Zuma of making empty promises and say he isn’t fit for the top job. In 2006, he was acquitted of raping an HIV-positive family friend half his age. The case cast a shadow over his character and judgment, not helped by the fact that he is an open polygamist who has — according to newspaper reports — fathered more than a dozen children.
President Mbeki fired Zuma as the country’s deputy president in 2005, after Zuma’s financial adviser was sentenced to 15 years in jail for trying to elicit bribes from French company Thint, formerly Thomson CSF.
Zuma allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Thint to use his influence and stop investigations into arms deal contracts with the government, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors won an important victory on Thursday when the Constitutional Court upheld a ruling that the 2005 police seizure of incriminating documents from Zuma’s home and office was legal. It also ruled that prosecutors could bring documents from Mauritius about a meeting between a Thint executive and Zuma.
The ruling prompted Zuma loyalists to question the Constitutional Court judges’ integrity. Top ANC member Blade Nzimande, who also heads the Communist Party, accused the judges of throwing South Africa into a “constitutional crisis” — comments that led opposition parties to voice concern about the future independence of the judiciary.
“We will accompany Jacob Zuma to court and to the presidency,” Nzimande said. “He will be the next president of the republic of South Africa, irrespective of whatever is happening.”
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS