African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma has nothing to do with a court application to change the date of the appeal against the dismissal of his corruption charges to after the elections, his lawyer said on Thursday.
”That application has neither been launched with Mr Zuma’s authority, nor sanction,” said Michael Hulley on the Society for the Protection of our Constitution’s application to the Cape High Court.
The group’s attorney, Zehir Omar, said that an application for an urgent notice of motion had been served and filed and would be heard in the court on Monday.
The group believes that the date of November 28 in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) was set in violation of court time limits.
They will submit that rules seven and eight of the Supreme Court of Appeal render a hearing impossible before the expiry of at least five months from the granting of the application for leave to appeal.
On October 22, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was granted leave to appeal Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Chris Nicholson’s judgement, which set aside the charges against Zuma.
Zuma, who the group supports as the next president of the country, would be ”crippled” and ”maimed” during the pre-election campaign period and the outcome of the election would not be free and fair, the society’s secretary, Muhammed Vawda, said.
The society wants the court to order the ANC’s national executive committee to ask the NPA to request that the date be moved to after the elections.
However, Hulley said Zuma’s legal team would not ask for a postponement of the appeal on November 28.
”We are going to argue it,” Hulley said of the case that was first taken to court in 2003 after Zuma’s financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was convicted of facilitating bribes to him from arms company Thint.
That attempt was struck off the roll, and a second round of charges were set aside.
Both attempts were accompanied by thunderous criticism of the prosecuting and judicial authorities by Zuma supporters. The dismissal of the charges in September ultimately led to the removal of Thabo Mbeki as president.
The society’s own attempt at getting the SCA registrar to change the date failed on the grounds that it was not a party to the case, a letter attached to its court papers said.
A court official there was not immediately available to comment.
Hulley did not want to comment on the society’s contention that court rules had been violated.
The NPA said it, too, would be ready to proceed with the appeal.
Election campaign
Meanwhile, those who have broken away from the ANC are like the donkey on which, according to the Bible, Jesus rode into Jerusalem, Beeld reported on Thursday. ANC president Jacob Zuma used this metaphor while addressing hundreds of Congress of South African Trade Union workers in a packed hall in Polokwane as part of his early election campaign in Limpopo on Thursday.
He said there was a story in the Bible about a ”lucky donkey” on whose back Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the newspaper reported.
”The people were waiting for the son of the man who was on the donkey. The donkey did not understand it, and thought the songs of praise were for him,” he said.
According to Zuma, the donkey later tried to return to Jerusalem on its own in order to once again experience that moment of glory, but people chased it away.
In the same way, the Congress of the People (Cope) leaders will find they are nothing without the ANC, Zuma said.
Zuma compared Cope’s leaders to snakeskin that remains behind after the winter, while the snake — the ANC — sailed in its new skin.
However, he added that the ANC should allow the dissidents back in should they change their minds and come knocking at the ANC’s door again.
Cope claimed it wanted to protect the Constitution when, in fact, it wanted to amend it in order to change the electoral system, Zuma charged.
He said Cope wanted a direct presidential election, as in the United States.
”The American system is different, because it is based on individualism. One man tells the people he is the best leader and we don’t know if we can believe him or not,” the Beeld reported. — Sapa