The prosecution is preparing to oppose a court bid by arms company Thint to be given immediate further particulars on the corruption charges it faces alongside former deputy president Jacob Zuma.
Thint and Thint Holdings, accused numbers two and three in the pending corruption trial, filed papers in the Durban High Court on Friday seeking to compel the prosecution to make available further particulars on the indictment.
The first accused, Zuma, was listed as an interested party in the Thint application.
The state has until May 4 to file replying affidavits, and the matter has been enrolled for hearing on May 12, prosecutor Billy Downer confirmed.
The prosecution contends it is unable to provide further particulars until it has finalised the indictment. This it can only do once litigation over the legality of search warrants used by investigators to obtain evidence in the case is finished.
To complete the final indictment, the prosecution needs to know on what evidence it can rely.
Provisional indictments have been served on Thint and Zuma ahead of the trial, due to get under way on July 31.
Asked on Monday whether the state will be ready to proceed on that day, Downer said: ”It will all depend on what happens until then. The court will be asked to provide clarity [on May 12] on whether we have to proceed.”
Zuma, facing a separate rape trial, has been charged in line with a high court finding that he had had a ”generally corrupt” relationship with his financial adviser Schabir Shaik.
The two Thint companies are South African subsidiaries of French arms dealer Thales, and stand accused of offering Zuma a R500 000-a-year bribe in exchange for his silence during a probe into the country’s multibillion-rand arms acquisition.
In convicting Shaik, the Durban High Court found last year the money had been a bribe. Shaik is taking the guilty verdict, which resulted in Zuma’s dismissal by President Thabo Mbeki, on appeal. — Sapa