KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele joined African National
Congress secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe and KwaZulu-Natal finance minister Zweli Mkhize in the front row of the Pietermaritzburg High Court ahead of Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial on Monday.
Fifty seats have been reserved for supporters of the ANC deputy president, 35 for VIPs and 35 for the media.
The wood-panelled courtroom with dim lighting and red velvet seating was quiet ahead of the long-awaited trial.
An extra security gate outside the court will help to control access, and sharpshooters positioned on the roofs of surrounded buildings added to the tight security arrangements.
Outside a lively crowd of several thousand people sang and danced.
Zuma faces two charges of corruption. His co-accused, the arms company Thint, is accused of having offered him a bribe of R500 000 a year in exchange for his silence during a probe into the country’s multibillion-rand arms deal.
Kessie Naidu, the advocate commonly known as the ”Silver Fox,” arrived at the court on Monday to represent Thint.
Naidu did not address anybody and walked directly into the court building flanked by the rest of his legal team.
‘We are not able to proceed’
A request for the trial to be postponed was merely about further investigations, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said outside the court on Monday.
”It’s not that we are not ready to proceed, it’s that we are not able to proceed,” Nkosi told reporters outside the court.
”It’s not about a watertight case, it’s about further investigation.”
The NPA has filed an application for permission to have the case postponed — a move rejected by Zuma’s supporters, many of whom have threatened countrywide protests if there were repeated delays.
Zuma’s legal team is expected to oppose the application.
Nkosi also denied lying about the case, an accusation leveled at him by Zet Luzipho, the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ provincial secretary in KwaZulu-Natal.
At a march in Durban last week Luzipho said that Nkosi knew that the case might be postponed and had lied when he said they were ready to proceed.
”There is no need for me to resign. I have not lied. I carry out my duties with integrity and honesty. I serve the public at the direction and instruction of the national director [of public prosecutions].”
The ANC said it expected a strong show of support for Zuma, provincial spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said.
He said the ANC was fully behind Zuma and would turn out in full force to support him.
”It was an NEC [national executive committee] decision that we come and support him during this difficult time.”
Mthimkhulu made a call to ANC members to exercise maximum discipline during the trial.
”We were not very happy with what happened during the last Durban appearance, people behaved in a manner which was not commendable.”
The number of supporters outside the court has increased to a few thousand dancing and singing people.
Zuma’s family members arrived in a black BMW and entered the court.
Thirteen heavily armed policemen in bullet-proof vests also lined up outside court to start letting people in. – Sapa