By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Gauteng High Court rejected former president and MK Party leader Jacob Zuma’s bid to appeal paying back R28.9m legal fees for his corruption trial.
The judgment relates to an application by the state, supported by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which sought to have Zuma repay all the money used by the state towards his criminal prosecution and ancillary litigation instituted against him in his personal capacity.
The judgment follows a 2018 high court decision that found the funding of Zuma’s legal costs was unlawful.
In that ruling, Deputy Judge President Audrey Ledwaba overturned a 2006 agreement signed by Zuma and former president Thabo Mbeki stating the government would pay Zuma’s legal fees in his protracted 1999 Arms Deal and other cases instituted against him in his personal capacity.
Zuma appealed against the judgment in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), which essentially upheld the same decision, ruling that the payments had indeed been unlawful and required the state to recover them.
Judge Anthony Millar on Thursday turned down Zuma’s application for leave to appeal the pay-back judgment before a full court {three judges} or the Supreme Court of Appeal. Judge Millar said that he is not persuaded that another court would come to a different conclusion.
“To keep the doors of the court open indefinitely to a litigant who refuses to accept the judgment on a particular matter, serves no legitimate purpose. All it does is serve to be a drain on scarce judicial resources and to strengthen the view that accountability can be deferred for so long as one has the means to do so,” the judge commented.
He added that it is destructive of the notion that all are equal before the law and confirmatory of the view that “there is far too much law for those who can afford it and far too little for those who cannot”.
The judge also rejected Zuma’s second objection, that the court “lacked the empathy and constitutional sensitivity” by ordering Zuma to make repayment. Judge Millar said in this regard the high-water mark of this argument was that the impact of the orders on Zuma were not taken into account.
This means the State Attorney is required to submit a report every three months detailing the steps taken to recover the money, the actions still planned, and the amounts recovered to date. But Zuma can still approach the SCA.