The Presidency is considering a request from Jacob Zuma for financial assistance in his corruption trial, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Thursday.
It quoted chief operations officer Trevor Fowler as saying the matter was being discussed by lawyers.
”The Presidency, through the state attorneys, have been communicating with the attorneys of record of Mr Zuma,” Fowler said.
”They have made an application and we have responded to the application, and we are still awaiting a response from them.”
Zuma earlier claimed his efforts to obtain financial assistance from the government had been fruitless.
Zuma acknowledged on Monday that he was running out of money. In an affidavit handed to the Pietermaritzburg High Court, he accused the office of the state attorney of dragging its feet to provide financing for his legal fees.
The Presidency agreed earlier to pay a portion of Zuma’s legal fees in the corruption trial.
Zuma said in his affidavit he was unemployed and struggling to pay his legal representatives. Zuma has one junior and two senior advocates appearing for him in his corruption trial — the same legal team that handled his rape trial. Zuma’s affidavit said the state attorney offered to provide an attorney to give instructions to specific junior and senior advocates.
This was ”unsatisfactory and unacceptable”, said Zuma. The advocates the state attorney wanted to appoint ”didn’t include the advocates who have always handled my affairs in this trial”.
Calls to the state attorney’s office and the Presidency to resolve the matter had been fruitless, Zuma said.
The corruption trial in Pietermaritzburg was on Monday postponed to September 5. – Sapa