DA leader Mmusi Maimane says it is unconscionable, and unacceptable, that the presidency has agreed to pay for Jacob Zuma’s legal costs for his participation in the Zondo commission, on top of the costs for his criminal defence that the state already pays.
“How long will this government make the public pay for Jacob Zuma? President Ramaphosa should cut off this obscene funding immediately, and in fact the president should be opposing Zuma’s application for a permanent stay of prosecution,” Maimane said in a statement on Sunday.
He added that if Ramaphosa was serious about showing real commitment to fighting corruption, there was no way that he should be allowing the public to carry the cost of Zuma’s legal defence, and he described this as “a corruption tax on the public”.