Former president. Jacob Zuma argues in the Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein that he was wrongly presented as the “scapegoat” of the weapons scandal.
He had nothing to do with the arms deal of billions of rands, says the former president.
Zuma argues that if the state was “sincere” with the investigation into the then arms deals, he would “investigate others who were closer to decision-making”, such as the former president Thabo Mbeki.
He claims he did not hold a government position at the time. Nor was it he who decided that the Special Investigation Unit could not investigate certain aspects of the arms deal.
The former president appealed directly to the appeals court after a full bench of judges in the Pietermaritzburg High Court rejected his application for appeal with costs.
That application followed after the same Supreme Court denied his corruption hearing.
Zuma, along with French arms manufacturer Thales, is facing 18 charges of corruption, fraud, robbery and money laundering.
Zuma is charged with being bribed during the arms deal involving five in the 1990s.
Zuma owes the Public Protector R330000 in unpaid legal fees for high profile cases he lost with costs. About R164000 relates to the failed review of Madonsela’s report, while almost R165500 is for Zuma’s urgent application to interdict the release of the report, which he later withdrew.
At the time, Zuma sought to prevent the finalisation and release of the report through the interdict until such time as he had been afforded a reasonable opportunity to provide input into Madonsela’s investigation.
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