Johannesburg - The DA and EFF has once again forged a united force against former president Jacob Zuma’s bid to convince the High Court in Pretoria that he was legally entitled to state funds to fight corruption charges against him.
Initially, the DA lodged the application to the High Court in Pretoria in March this year, asking it to set aside President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to continue to funding Zuma for his upcoming corruption trial on November 30. In its head of arguments, the DA argued that the alleged corruption in which Zuma received more than 783 corrupt payments from his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik happened outside his official duties as KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Economic Development and Tourism.
The EFF joined the legal bid against Zuma in September this year, in which it endorsed all submissions made by the DA. The two parties agreed that the State had since 2004 used wrong laws to support legal funding for Zuma.
Both their legal counsels, Advocate Sean Rosenberg SC for the DA and Adv Tembeka Ngcukaitobi for the EFF, concurred section 3 (1) used by the State to allow funding for Zuma was unlawful.
Both argued that section 3 (1) allowed a State Attorney to provide legal services to a public official and public servant who is facing a litigation. Describing the irregularity, both counsels said in Zuma’s case, the same section was used to appoint private lawyers to represent Zuma in case where he was also not criminally charged.
“Section 3 (1) does not allow the appointment of a private lawyer,” Rosenberg argued.
Rosenberg and Ngcukaitobi also challenged Ramaphosa’s decision to allow the State to continue to funding Zuma based on section 3 (3) saying his alleged criminal conduct was not in defence of the state.
The case continues.