According to the Presidency, there’s been no ‘political instruction’ to the State Attorney not to recover the estimated R32 million it paid for Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial litigation.
It did not, however, guarantee that litigation to recover the money will be launched before that claim prescribes.
Vincent Magwenya, the spokesman for the Presidency, stressed that should the summons not be issued against Zuma on time, the State Attorney would potentially face contempt of court charges, not the Presidency. The State Attorney has identified the Presidency as its ‘client’.
The DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach has repeatedly enquired about the State Attorney’s two-years-and-eight-months delay in recovering Zuma’s legal costs.
‘The State Attorney has been ordered, in unambiguous terms, to recover monies spent on Mr Zuma’s legal costs. The court has described the monies so spent as being akin to giving Mr Zuma a ‘blank cheque’ with which to litigate’, Breytenbach told News24.
She confirmed that the Presidency is the client. ‘This is disgraceful, prescription is running, and is due to run out in May 2024. They clearly intend to conspire to allow this massive debt to prescribe rather than harm the electoral ambitions of the ANC’.
The reason for the delay is unclear. Lawyers for the EFF obtained and submitted detailed information about these claims, as part of the party’s successful challenge to the former president’s excessive legal funding by the state.
In September, Solicitor-General Fhedzisani Pandelani told News24 that the original amount of R18.2 million in taxpayers’ money spent on Zuma had doubled, causing the delay in summons being issued.
He had hoped to issue summons against Zuma by the end of September. This has not happened. He said they were still trying to consult with their client, the Presidency.