Zuma back in court to challenge costs order

Former President Jacob Zuma will be in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) on Thursday to appeal a ruling ordering him to personally pay R10m for challenging the remedial action set out in former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report. Zuma unsuccessfully sought to prevent the release of the report and review parts of it, notes City Press. Zuma’s lawyer Daniel Mantsha said the former President was applying for leave to appeal the ruling in his personal capacity. He would be appealing the ruling on three grounds. These include that ‘the court erred in law in holding that the President was ill-advised and reckless in launching the challenge against remedial action of the Public Protector’; that the court also erred in ordering Zuma to ‘pay the costs of the application when he was not cited in his personal capacity or given an opportunity to explain his conduct’; and to resolve the application of the doctrine of separation of powers. In December last year, notes the report, the High Court delivered a scathing judgment, finding that Zuma acted ‘in flagrant disregard’ of the Public Protector’s constitutional obligations. Delivering the judgment on behalf of a full Bench, Judge Dunstan Mlambo said Zuma tried ‘to stymie the fulfilment of a constitutional obligation by the Office of the Public Protector’ in delaying the State of Capture report and ordered Zuma to personally pay the costs of the case. The court also found that Zuma engaged in ‘clear abuse of judicial process’, was ‘grossly remiss’ as a litigant, and his approach had ‘no acceptable basis in law and in fact’.