Deputy President Jacob Zuma is to get access to a document he sought from the prosecuting authority that allegedly implicated him in bribery. A settlement agreement to this effect was reached between the two parties and made an order of the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday.
Zuma’s application was struck off the court roll in September. It was brought on an urgent basis then, but Judge Jerry Shongwe said this had been a mistake. The matter should have been placed on the normal court roll.
The deputy president was instructed to pay the legal costs of all the respondents — the National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, the National Prosecuting Authority, and the Scorpions special investigations unit.
At issue is a hand written, encrypted fax in French in which Alain Thetard of the French company Thales (formerly known as Thomson CSF) allegedly stated that he had had a meeting with Zuma and the deputy president’s financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, in Durban in 2000.
According to a decoded version of the fax, the discussions centred on the payment of R500 000 per year in exchange for Zuma protecting Thomson CSF during an investigation into South Africa’s multi-billion rand arms deal — in which the company got a contract.
Zuma would also have given the company permanent support for future projects, the document allegedly claims. The fax was included in a charge sheet in a criminal case against Shaik.
In August, Ngcuka announced Zuma would not be prosecuted in terms of the arms deal, even though there was a prima facie case against him.
Zuma accused Ngcuka of pronouncing judgement on him. The charge sheet against Shaik was released a few days later, and contained material apparently prejudicial to Zuma.
Zuma said earlier that he wants to get hold of the hand written version of the Thetard fax to be able to respond to allegations against him. – Sapa