The state would only need documents held in Mauritius if the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) decides to prosecute former deputy president Jacob Zuma, the Pietermaritzburg High Court heard on Friday.
Zuma’s advocate, Kemp J Kemp, told the court: ”It is not necessary for them to have these documents at this time.”
Kemp pointed out that the state had already said at Zuma’s corruption trial last year that ”they could proceed without them. They don’t need it for investigation and information.”
The NPA is seeking to persuade Judge Phillip Levensohn to sign a letter requesting cooperation from the Mauritian authorities to release the documents, including the 2000 diary of Alain Thetard — the former chief executive of Thales International’s South African subsidiary, Thint.
Thint chief executive Pierre Moynot was in court on Friday, but Zuma did not attend proceedings.
Kemp told Levensohn that any letter issued by the court was ”academic” until the Mauritian authorities had persuaded the high court in Mauritius to lift a 2001 injunction brought by Thales International, the parent company of Thint.
Kemp also complained that the NPA had initially sought to obtain the documents without using the provisions of the International Cooperation in Criminal Matters Act and that it was ”wrong now” to use the provisions of the act to secure the documents.
He said that if the Act was not used then the relevant authorities needed to use established practice.
Kemp disputed the relevance of Thetard’s diary, saying that it was used to note upcoming documents and not past events.
Levensohn then responded: ”I think it is important for you to have that diary, the original [to prove that point].”
Kemp also argued that testimony from several sources had not revealed that copies of the documents were made.
”There is something wrong here. Why do all these people have collective amnesia of copies being made?” — Sapa