Less than a week after former president Jacob Zuma pegged the country's judiciary alongside that of the apartheid state, the former president is attempting to direct when his corruption trial should be heard.
While Jacob Zuma was making his "feelings" on the judiciary public in episode seven of the ongoing YouTube "reality" series, Zooming with the Zumas, the prosecuting team for The State v JG Zuma and Thales South Africa (Pty) Ltd was preparing to amend the original Indictment to include further charges against the former president.
Correspondence between the deputy director of public prosecutions, Billy Downer, and the judge president of the KwaZulu-Natal Division, Achmat Jappie, dated 21 May 2020, indicates that a number of payments from the Shaik/Nkobi group had been discovered during a review of the evidence.
The prosecution team, and Downer, in particular, had years to go through evidence while the target fought street by street, building by building.
"It is correct, as you suspected, that the State will apply that the Indictment be amended to include a number of payments from the Shaik/Nkobi group to Mr Zuma that FTI discovered during their review of the old KPMG...
