Former president Thabo Mbeki had ample opportunity to join proceedings to defend himself against inferences of political meddling, which were pronounced by Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Chris Nicholson, but opted not to, says Jacob Zuma’s lawyer in papers filed on Thursday with the Constitutional Court.
The papers were filed to oppose Mbeki’s petitioning of the highest court in the land to ”expunge” from the record of that judgement parts that suggest the former president had intervened to ensure that Zuma was charged by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Attorney Michael Hulley argues that Mbeki was afforded ample opportunity to object to suggestions that he, in his capacity as head of the executive, had interfered in the corruption trial involving Zuma.
The papers, says University of Western of Cape legal academic Pierre De Vos, seem to suggest that Mbeki only petitioned the Constitutional Court because Nicholson’s judgement had put him in a negative light, and ultimately led to his recall from the country’s presidency.
The papers, De Vos added, also accuse Mbeki of not intervening earlier purely because he did not want to subject himself to cross-examination about his alleged role in writing a letter about the arms-deal saga that led to Zuma being charged with, among other charges, corruption.
”Mbeki is right in law but wrong on procedure,” said University of Cape Town administrator and lawyer Paul Ngobeni.
He added that he agreed with Hulley’s sentiment that Mbeki had no standing in law to approach the Constitutional Court as he was not party to proceedings in the first place.
He said that he would be surprised if Mbeki was not sent packing purely on procedural grounds.
He added that Mbeki was correct in asking the court whether Nicholson had a right in his judgement to refer to the former president, even though he was not party to the proceedings taking place in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
Ngobeni said this is a worrying trend that the courts in the United States of America have condemned as ”Unindicted Co-conspirators”.