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The National Fiscal Authority has uncovered additional payments made to former President Jacob Zuma by his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, Business Day reported.
According to that publication, this will require the NPA to update the forensic report on Zuma’s finances in the former president’s upcoming corruption trial.
Zuma and the French arms company Thales face charges of fraud, money laundering, corruption and extortion for a series of alleged bribes paid to Zuma through Shaik, during the multi-million dollar arms deal in the late 1990s. Shaik was convicted of fraud and corruption in June 2005 for irregularities around the same matter, and sentenced to 15 years behind bars.
The new revelations reportedly suggest that Zuma’s level of dependency on benefactors for financial survival was deeper than originally thought.
Payments made ‘by friendship’
During his trial, Shaik argued that the payments he had made to Zuma, totaling more than R1.2 million, were made out of friendship and camaraderie.
While the exact amount of the additional payments is unknown, Zuma’s chief prosecutor, Billy Downer, confirmed, in a letter to Zuma’s new attorney, Eric Mabuza, that these were included in a revised report on Zuma’s finances by the forensic investigator Johan van der Walt.
READ | Zuma fraud trial postponed due to ‘investigation’ into non-appearance in February
Van der Walt, the forensic auditor who was the primary witness against Shaik, and who wrote the reports on Shaik and Zuma, is coincidentally the same person who touched his report withdrawn from allegations that the South African Revenue Service (SARS) was operating called corrupt unit, News24 reported.
But that was a separate topic. In his 2005 trial against Shaik, Judge Hilary Squires ruled: “Van der Walt was clearly an impartial witness who simply described the chapter and verse, in extraordinary detail, evidence that he drew from the mass of documents they gave him for research”.
According to Business Day, the correspondence between Mabuza and Downer makes it clear that the State is determined to proceed with its fraud, corruption, extortion, and tax evasion case against Zuma and Thales as soon as possible.
Postponed case
Zuma’s case before the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg has been postponed until June 23 to allow an investigation into his failure to appear in court in February.
Zuma faces 16 charges, including fraud, fraud, corruption, and money laundering, while Thales faces two charges. The charges refer to 783 questionable payments Zuma allegedly received in connection with the controversial multi-million dollar arms deal.
Another reason for the postponement was Thales’ request to the Constitutional Court. The arms company approached the superior court to obtain permission to appeal the Superior Court’s decision to dismiss its request to suspend the prosecution.
Last week, the Constitutional Court ruled that the appeal should be dismissed at cost because “it lacks reasonable prospects for success.”
The decision means that there are no more legal challenges standing in the way of the state, allowing it to start with the 15-year case against Zuma and Thales.
A third reason for the postponement was “an investigation in terms of Section 170 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Law, No. 51 of 1977, on the lack of appearance of the accused 1 (Zuma) at the hearing of February 4, 2020, “said the NPA.
The court issued a suspended arrest warrant for the former president after he failed to appear. At that time, Zuma’s lawyers claimed that he was ill and that he was receiving treatment abroad.
Zuma withdraws the suspension of the accusation
In April, the Zuma foundation announced that it had withdrawn its request before the Constitutional Court to be allowed to appeal the rejection of its request for suspension of trial.
ALSO READ | Zuma withdraws appeal of stay of indictment: now he can prepare for his day in court
Zuma said he was preparing to “demonstrate that he had never benefited from any type of corruption in the arms business or had tried to evade the trial.”
The State alleges that Zuma received more than 780 payments, totaling just over R4 million, from Shaik and his group of companies Nkobi over a period of nine years, beginning in 1996.
– Compiled by Riaan Grobler
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