Monday’s judgement of the Supreme Court of Appeal upholding the conviction of Schabir Shaik, financial adviser to former deputy president Jacob Zuma, now gives the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) the moral high ground to continue with its case against Zuma, says United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa.
“This doesn’t augur well for Mr Zuma,” Holomisa said on Monday, noting that the authenticity of the encrypted arms-deal fax involving Zuma had been a contentious issue. The Scorpions’ — the NPA directorate of special operations — case would have been weakened if the court had dismissed the fax.
Shaik heard the news of the failure of his appeal with a heavy heart, Independent Online reported. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “Boom, boom, boom, one, two, three, they didn’t uphold anything. All the lawyers were wrong about what was going to happen.”
What was extremely worrying to him was the court’s denial of leave to appeal on count one, making a Constitutional Court appeal more difficult.
Shaik immediately went into a meeting with his brothers on the stoep of the Cape Town hotel close to the slopes of Kirstenbosch on the back of Table Mountain, where they were staying. There was a heavy air of despondency as the brothers took tea and decided on future strategy.
Earlier, Shaik was extremely upbeat and, unlike his brothers, said he had slept “like a baby”. He decided not to listen to the judgement broadcast on radio, but went for a walk instead in the hotel gardens.
His two brothers, Mo and Yunis, listened to the judgement for him and then went to call him from the garden where he was walking with his prayer beads.
Shaik pulled out of a media conference he was scheduled to address on Monday after losing his appeal against corruption and fraud convictions.
The organisers of the lunchtime event in Cape Town said Shaik had declined to take part, and sent his brothers instead.
Mo Shaik said the dismissal of the appeal was a “devastating judgement on all three counts”, Mo said — hence Schabir’s absence from the media conference.
He said it was a matter of hours before Schabir was supposed to report to the authorties and his brother was preparing for this. He was “gathering his thoughts” and for what lay ahead.
‘Case will be reopened’
Meanwhile, Independent Democrats (ID) leader Patricia de Lille — who, like Holomisa, has placed a focus in Parliament on South Africa’s controversial arms deal — said she believes the judgment opens the door to a jail term for Zuma.
She said Zuma had been the beneficiary of the Shaik deals. “With him being the beneficiary of the crooked deals, he must also be punished. I believe the case will be reopened against him.”
On September 20 the case of corruption against Zuma was struck off the roll by the Pietermaritzburg High Court because the state could not proceed with the case.
Holomisa said the problem for Zuma — who remains deputy president of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) — is that when the case was struck off, the public perception was “that he was free”. It had appeared that the matter had been put to rest.
That has all changed now, said Holomisa, who said that even if Zuma is elected president of the ANC next year at its national congress, he could still face prosecution by the Scorpions.
The UDM leader said the Shaik judgement had always been more about Zuma “and the arms-deal saga”. Monday’s judgement opened up “a can of worms” regarding the next development in South Africa’s arms deal.
Last year Judge Hilary Squires convicted Shaik of having a “generally corrupt relationship” with Zuma. He was also convicted for soliciting a R500Â 000 bribe for Zuma from arms company Thint.
The other charge, of fraud, related to the apparent attempt to conceal a R1,2-million set of payments to Zuma.
Monday’s Supreme Court of Appeal judgement by Judge President Craig Howie effectively upheld the Squires judgement.
‘Extraordinary significance’
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomed the dismissal of Shaik’s appeal against his fraud and corruption convictions. This is of extraordinary significance for Shaik as well as the country as a whole, DA justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer said on Monday.
She said the political implications of the ruling almost trump the legal ones, adding that the judgement struck a blow for the rule of law and that the minimum sentence of 15 years sent a strong message that corrupt dealings do not pay.
The ruling “surely” has serious implications for Zuma’s political future. “It is hard to see how the NPA can fail to pursue their case against him [Zuma] now,” said Camerer. “Today’s [Monday] verdict gives Zuma a true opportunity to ‘have his day in court’ and it gives South Africa a new opportunity to know the full truth about the arms deal and other allegedly corrupt activities involving Zuma.”
Sipho Seepe, an academic director of Henley Management College, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Monday morning that the judgement was to be expected. “Judge Squires is a regal judge and the manner in which he conducted the case and the trial was meticulous.”
Seepe said Monday’s judgement will not necessarily make it easier for the NPA to prosecute Zuma, as the judgement dealt with “the corrupt behaviour of Shaik and not Zuma”.
He said that the judgement also shows that Mbeki did not act in haste when he fired Zuma. “It’s good news for Mbeki because he can actually make a case that there was sufficient information before him.
“Now there’s going to be an intense campaign to protect Zuma and there is also going to be an intense campaign to nail him,” Seepe said.
The African National Congress Youth League said in a statement that no inference must be drawn from the rejection of Shaik’s appeal, as Monday’s judgement was with respect to Shaik, whose evidence was tested in a court of law.
“We must at all times, observe the provisions of the Constitution of the republic, and desist a temptation to find any person guilty outside of the credible due processes of the law, as this undermines and violates important elements of the rule of law,” the league said.
No court of law has found Zuma, the ANC deputy president, guilty of any wrong-doing, it said.
Bomb scare
The court was evacuated following a bomb scare shortly after judgement was delivered on Monday morning. Police entered the building with dogs after ordering everybody out.
Vernon Vorster, a registrar’s clerk, said he received a phone call from a man claiming to be from a radio station, asking him to read out the 95-page judgement. “Then, suddenly, it seemed as if he was speaking to a third person and said we should vacate the premises … a bomb is going to go off.”
Shortly before noon, police had completed their search and it was back to work for courts employees who had spent some time milling about in the sunshine in the garden in front of the court.