The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Sunday called for African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma to be reinstated as the country’s
deputy president.
This followed a media report in which Judge Hilary Squires denied he found a ”generally corrupt relationship” between Zuma and businessman Schabir Shaik.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said: ”We will never accept that Jacob Zuma would receive a fair trial because the president suspended him following what he believed was coming from Judge Squires.”
He said the Shaik judgement did an irreparable damage to Zuma.
Squires sentenced Schabir Shaik to 15 years in prison for corruption.
In a letter written to Business Day, Squires pointed out the error and attributed the phrase to the prosecution.
”If you have never read the judgement delivered in that case, may I suggest that you do so. I can find no such mention of my having made any such comment,” he said.
”If you have already read the judgement, and in it this phrase ‘a generally corrupt relationship,’ occurs, I would be grateful if you would advise me of the page and line number in which the statement appears.”
Squires said it was not possible during the trial to make any finding on the nature of the relationship between the two men, since Zuma was not on trial. – Sapa