Pretoria - Halala Sibiya, senior administrative officer of the Jacob G Zuma RDP Education Trust, on Wednesday confirmed the senior citizens' party was taking place today, while a Christmas party for children would take place on Saturday.
This month, Zuma, who has recently joined Twitter and already boasted close to 150 000 followers on the social media platform, was ordered by the Pretoria High Court to pay all of the R15.3 million he had accumulated in legal bills to defend his corruption and fraud cases.
However, this has not stopped his plans to host the two annual parties, with the elderly of Nkandla expected to be joined by ministers, MECs, premiers, mayors and prominent businessmen who have been invited by the trust to form part of the festivities.
“This year’s event is going to be the same as previous years; there’s no difference at all and we expect to be joined by scores of people as usual,” said Sibiya.
Zuma’s legal battles are set to intensify next year. He is expected to pay back the millions the government paid for his defence, and will be required to fund his court battles which resume in May next year.
Zuma, who has been a hit on Twitter since joining earlier this month, posted two videos sharing what he referred to as “my opinion on recent events”, saying it was important to share his comments on the high court the regarding return of the money paid by the government in his case.
“I have instructed my lawyers to appeal (against) this judgment. What I would like to say is that all of us as citizens of this democratic country must all respect the judgments by courts at whatever level because these are judgments which we believe are taken by people who have given a thorough thought, listened to evidence and balanced the facts.
“At times these may be very painful decisions and you might be feeling very hurt perhaps, as I do, but once the court has taken a decision then it has taken a decision.
“But all of us must listen properly to the case, look at the evidence and compare the evidence to the judgment. But also to look at the judgment itself, whether we are consistent in our country in terms of applying the law,” said Zuma on Twitter.