On Monday the supreme court dismantled many of the lower court’s findings, which had been trumpeted by the Zuma camp. Judge Harms said part of the previous ruling amounted to ”the judge’s own conspiracy theory”.
Either Mr Zuma or the ANC might now launch an application for a permanent stay of the charges on the grounds that it would be impossible for him to receive a fair trial. Business leaders and constitutionalists worry that the party might seek to introduce immunity from prosecution for sitting presidents if it retains its two-thirds majority in the face of a challenge from a new breakaway party. ANC insiders deny that such a move is planned, however.
NVDL: Interesting to see that apparently 'infallible' judges of the higher court can be guilty of some egregious errors. This case demonstrates how vital it is that we all practise critical thinking.
Jacob Zuma, the leader of South Africa’s ruling party, will go into an election campaign in which he looks certain to win the presidency charged with corruption, after a court reinstated the 16 counts against him on Monday.
The supreme court of appeal in Bloemfontein ruled in favour of prosecutors and reversed a bombshell decision by a lower court in September to throw out on a technicality charges of corruption, fraud, money-laundering and tax-evasion related to Mr Zuma’s role in a R30bn arms deal signed in 1999.
Reading the judgement, Louis Harms, acting deputy president of the supreme court of appeal, detailed what the judges saw as a catalogue of errors in the earlier judgement.
He ruled that Chris Nicholson, the lower court judge, had ”taken his eye off the ball” and ”subverted” the legal process when he detailed what he considered a political conspiracy against Mr Zuma – a finding which, according to the supreme court of appeal, had ”nothing to do with the case”.
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