The rape trial of former deputy president Jacob Zuma will finally go ahead on Monday after his lawyers indicated that they would not oppose the appointment of Judge Willem van der Merwe to hear the case.
Transvaal division Judge President Bernard Ngoepe announced on Thursday that Judge van der Merwe, a white Afrikaner best known for sentencing former apartheid hitman Eugene de Kock to life imprisonment in 1996, would preside over the case. He also presided over the high-profile trial of four policemen who set their dogs on illegal immigrants.
After Zuma’s counsel objected on grounds that he had authorised the Scorpions raid on Zuma’s Johannesburg home, Judge Ngoepe recused himself from the trial two weeks ago. Deputy Judge President Phineas Mojapelo was the logical successor, but he declined because of his struggle ties to Zuma. Deputy Judge President Jeremiah Shongwe, who heads the Pretoria High Court, was also not appointed after it was pointed out that Zuma had fathered a son by his sister in exile.
On Thursday, Zuma’s lawyers said they were satisfied with the appointment of Judge van der Merwe. The Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust also said they did not have a problem with his appointment ”as long as justice is done”.
Judge van der Merwe also hit the headlines in 1999, as one of the judges who rejected the Democratic Party’s challenge to the exclusive use of barcoded identity documents in the election that year.