Jacob Zuma corruption charges: New legal 'dream team', new strategy?

The next move in the former president's strategy to avoid facing trial for corruption is keenly awaited

26 July 2018 - 08:40 By Genevieve Quintal
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Former president Jacob Zuma appears in the Durban High Court on June 8 2018. He is charged with 16 counts, including fraud‚ corruption and racketeering.
Former president Jacob Zuma appears in the Durban High Court on June 8 2018. He is charged with 16 counts, including fraud‚ corruption and racketeering.
Image: Jackie Clausen / Pool

Jacob Zuma makes his third appearance in court this week on graft charges, with an entirely new and bigger legal team to fight charges laid more than a decade ago.

What the evasive former president’s next move will be in his battle to avoid facing a trial judge is yet to be seen.

But Zuma appears to be sticking to his "Stalingrad defence" — deploying every possible legal diversion to stop his prosecution on 16 charges of corruption, fraud, racketeering and money laundering. The charges relate to 783 questionable payments connected with the arms deal, which led to the jailing of his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik.

The next reveal of his trial strategy will be in the Pietermaritzburg high court on Friday.

At his two most recent appearances in Durban, the former president indicated he would lodge an application for a review of the decision by the national director of public prosecutions to charge him.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Zuma had replaced his long-time attorney, Michael Hulley, with former Denel chair Daniel Mantsha, an associate of the Gupta family. Hulley represented Zuma for more than a decade, keeping him from going to trial and, by default, from possibly going to prison.

Read the full story on Financial Mail


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