Judgment in Zuma’s application to stay out of jail due on Friday

JUDGE Bhekisisa Mnguni of the Pietermaritzburg High Court will hand down judgment in the urgent application brought by former president Jacob Zuma on Friday.

It was a long day of hearing arguments from the head of Zuma’s legal team, advocate Dali Mpofu, advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobu, who represents the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, and advocate Max du Plessis, who represents the Helen Suzman Foundation, which opposed the application with the commission’s chairperson, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

Mpofu argued that the commission’s opposition was based purely on vindictiveness.

He also said the issue of jurisdiction was “a red herring” and that the court had an inherent and national jurisdiction even of other courts and tribunals.

Judge Mnguni asked Mpofu if they had approached the Constitutional Court to stay its arrest order. Mpofu said they did not “because the applicant did not know the Constitutional Court would issue instructions on Saturday”.

“You need to put yourself where he (Zuma) was on Friday and then on Saturday,” Mpofu said.

The Constitutional Court will hear Zuma’s application on July 12.

Ngcukaitobi told the court that Zuma was currently in contempt of a court order that ordered him to hand himself over to the authorities on Sunday.

He said the fact that the courts agreed to hear his cases did not mean he could ignore a court order.

“By his conduct, Mr Zuma has placed himself above judicial authority. He has defied the Constitution,” Ngcukaitobi said.

He also argued that the high court was out of its jurisdiction to overturn a Concourt ruling and that by doing so “would amount to second guessing the Concourt”.