ANC president Jacob Zuma’s legal team on Thursday filed papers opposing former president Thabo Mbeki’s Constitutional Court appeal against parts of Judge Chris Nicholson’s recent judgement.
The papers filed by Zuma’s attorney Michael Hulley said that Mbeki’s application to appeal certain parts of Nicholson’s September 12 judgement were “misconceived and bad in law”.
In the papers, Zuma maintains Mbeki “must have known at all material times of the allegations and issues” before Nicholson but had until after the judgement never sought to intervene in the case.
Mbeki is appealing against “certain findings” made by Nicholson in the judgement that ruled that the prosecution of Zuma on racketeering, money-laundering, corruption and fraud charges was invalid.
Mbeki is asking the Constitutional Court to order that the High Court “ought not to have made findings of and concerning” him “without having afforded him a hearing” and that these findings “constitute a violation of his rights”. He wants the findings set aside.
The National Prosecuting Authority is also opposing Mbeki’s application, primarily because it fears that the Constitutional Court may rule on matters that are part of its application to appeal the Pietermaritzburg High Court judgement.
A senior Johannesburg advocate told the Mail & Guardian recently that Mbeki was “going off sideways” while the NPA was still preparing its application.
“But he also has another problem: what he [Mbeki] seems to be wanting to do is to review a high court judge. There is no such thing as reviewing high court judges and the courts have made it clear that you can only appeal orders. Very often judges say harsh things about all kinds of people, but I’m afraid you’ve got to take that on the chin.” The advocate described Mbeki’s application as “extraordinary” and “breathtaking”.
“This complicates matters. It puts the Constitutional Court on the spot. The court can’t really tell Mbeki he’s crazy and to bugger off — they’re going to have to hear this debacle.”
But, even though he was attacking Mbeki, he also criticised Nicholson’s “loose and silly” judgement.