Former South African president, Jacob Zuma. (SIMON MAINA/AFP via Getty Images)
After nearly two decades of legal to and fro, former president Jacob Zuma is set to stand trial on arms deal corruption and money-laundering charges from 14 April 2025.
After a pre-trial hearing on Thursday, the KwaZulu-Natal judge president, Thoba Poyo-Dlwati, set the matter down to be heard from April to September next year, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said.
Trial Judge Nkosinathi Chili scheduled another pre-trial hearing for 29 August and postponed the matter until then.
“The National Prosecuting Authority is relieved that finally a trial date has been set and reserved by the judge president on the 14 of April 2025 during the second and third term of the Pietermaritzburg high court,” Mhaga said.
“We are hoping that there will be no hurdles that the NPA will have to navigate as part of the delaying tactics on the part of Mr Zuma. We are hoping that all preliminary issues will be ironed out by the 29th of August.”
The state has been pushing for a trial date since Chili in March dismissed another application by Zuma to have prosecutor Billy Downer, the seasoned advocate who has led its case since the start, removed on the grounds of alleged bias.
Zuma immediately signalled that he would seek to appeal that ruling but the NPA has argued that this was not cause for delay as he had no prospects of success, but was an abuse of court process brought solely for the purpose of delay.
“This prosecution has endured delays exceeding 15 years,” it noted in a submission to the court.
The NPA recalled that it had reached agreement with Zuma’s counsel in February 2021 that the matter was trial ready.
“Despite that agreement, more than three years later, the trial has still not commenced as a result of the interlocutory process and postponement requests initiated by Mr Zuma. This application is brought to further delay the commencement of the trial.”
It reiterated that Zuma has, since 2015, been employing a Stalingrad strategy — the term memorably used by his late defence counsel Kemp J Kemp SC to describe his use of successive interlocutory challenges — with the improper intent of delaying justice.
Every single interlocutory application filed by Zuma in the past three years has failed, including his first bid to disqualify Downer using a special plea entered in 2021 in terms of section 106 (1)(h) of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA), pleading that Downer had impartiality and therefore lacked title to prosecute.
When this was dismissed by the former trial judge, Piet Koen, Zuma purported to launch a private prosecution against Downer. It was struck down by the high court, which held that the former president had come to court “with unclean hands” and he was denied leave to appeal by the supreme court of appeal and the constitutional court.
“The abuse of the process of court and the utilisation of the Stalingrad strategy have adversely affected the rights of the state and the co-accused,” the NPA said, adding that the court had the power to prevent further such abuse.
Zuma faces corruption, fraud, theft and racketeering charges for allegedly taking bribes from French arms-manufacturer Thales, the second accused in the matter.