Former deputy president Jacob Zuma will reveal the reasons for his implication in corruption after his court battle, he promised more than 1 000 supporters outside the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
Thanking them for their support, Zuma said he was humbled by their presence at his second appearance on two charges of corruption on Tuesday morning.
Many had participated in an all-night vigil in his support on Monday night.
He had never imagined that after 10 years of democracy he would face charges for crimes he had never committed, Zuma told them.
The charges against Zuma were brought after the conviction of his friend and former financial adviser Schabir Shaik, who was sentenced to 15 years in jail for fraud and corruption — linked to Zuma. He faces two charges of contravening the Corruption Act, so far.
”[The Congress of SA Trade Unions] doesn’t regret for one moment having taken the stance it did throughout the saga,” its Secretary General Zwelinzima Vavi told the crowd.
Had it not done so, Zuma would have been ”thrown to the lions like many others before him”.
Also speaking outside the court, the SA Communist Party’s Blade Nzimande called on the media to report on the case in a ”fair and balanced way” and not to promote factionalism in the SACP.
The crowd, which chanted ”Zuma my president, my president”, at the start of proceedings, later joined Zuma in song before dispersing.
Vavi said supporters would be back outside the Durban Magistrate’s Court from the eve of November 12 for Zuma’s next appearance.
The state and prosecution on Tuesday morning agreed that the case adjourn until November 12 for further investigation, for an indictment to be served and to set a trial date.
Earlier, Zuma’s lawyer advocate Kessie Naidu told the court that his client’s case could not be transferred to the High Court without an indictment.
”There are no charges pending in the High Court,” said Naidu.
This comes after prosecutor Billy Downer requested that magistrate Bilkesh Asmal postpone Zuma’s case and move it to the High Court for trial on November 1.
Downer said the state had the right to serve an indictment on Zuma ten days before the start of a trial which he believed would only get under way during the course of 2006.
Naidu, however, opposed the state’s request and told Asmal: ”If you accede to this request, we are going to contend the proceedings have stopped in this court. There are no proceedings in any other court, therefore we want our bail money…”
High-profile people who attended proceedings on Tuesday included KwaZulu-Natal premier S’bu Ndebele, African National Congress head of the Presidency Smuts Ngonyama, ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe, former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni, Mo Shaik and KwaZulu-Natal economic affairs MEC Zweli Mkhize.
Zuma is deputy president of the ANC. – Sapa