By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says it will be up to the court to decide on a way forward after former president Jacob Zuma’s medical team missed the deadline to hand over their report on his fitness to stand trial for corruption.
The deadline was on Friday.
The 79-year-old politician remains in a military hospital after undergoing an undisclosed surgical procedure last week.
He was admitted to hospital following a routine check-up while serving a jail term at Estcourt prison for contempt of court.
It’s understood that Zuma’s doctors had asked the prosecutors for a week’s postponement but their request was denied.
“As the NPA we will leave it to the court to decide how to deal with it,” says NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga.
“We also reject their reasons for not filing their report,” he said,before adding that this dispute would be need to be addressed by presiding Judge Piet Koen.
Zuma’s medical report is expected to be confidential, as it will specify details about his health.
If such a postponement is sought, Zuma’s doctors – as well as the doctors appointed by the State to examine the former President – will be expected to testify and be cross-examined.
The former President was hospitalised two weeks ago while serving a 15-month jail term for defying a Constitutional Court ruling that he appear before the State Capture Inquiry.
The apex court is yet to rule on Zuma’s application for a rescission of that judgment, after asking the parties in the case to make submissions on the implications of international law on its majority decision to jail him.
Meanwhile Brigadier-General Dr Mcebisi Zukile Mdutywa of the South African Military Health Service has previously told the NPA and the department of correctional services that Zuma needed “… extensive emergency treatment”, that would require at least six months of care.
Mdutywa wrote to the NPA in KwaZulu-Natal to inform it that Zuma had been admitted to hospital “… as a result of his condition that that needed an extensive emergency procedure that has been delayed for 18 months due to compounding legal matters and recent incarceration and cannot be delayed any further as it carries a significant risk to his life.
The corruption trial, which involves Zuma and French arms company, Thales, is set to resume on 9-10 September after it was postponed by Koen due to former president being in hospital.