AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER
FORMER South African president Jacob Zuma’s legal woes mounted after he failed in his attempt to overturn a high court ruling that stopped the state from paying for his legal fees for his corruption trial.
Five judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) today dismissed Zuma’s appeal, he must now pay back an estimated R16-million in legal fees incurred by the state. Zuma went to the SCA after the Gauteng High Court found that there was no sound legal basis for the state to pay for his defence in the corruption trial where he faces over 800 charges.
The SCA also punished Zuma for his attack on judges who presided over the matter in the Gauteng High Court and slapped him with punitive costs. The court found that Zuma there was no basis to sustain Zuma’s accusation that Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba, Judge Pieter Meyer and Judge Elizabeth Kubushi were biased against him.
In dismissing Zuma’s appeal, the SCA found that if the state was burdened with the high legal costs of public office bearers who were charged with such crimes, the taxpayer bears the burden.
The court that it would be just and equitable for the former president to pay back all the money spent on his legal fees. The State attorney would determine the exact amount.
“Poor communities also continue to be denied access to essential services, as the state’s resources are being diverted to funding the defence of public office beares charged with such crimes, in this instance financially litigated on a most luxurious scale,” the ruling said.
The judges of the SCA said the repayment order was a necessary remedy to the abuse of public resources.
The order was also essential to vindicate the rule of law, reaffirm the constitutional principles of accountability and transparency, “especially by a former incumbent of the highest office in the land”.
