Zuma offers additional grounds in graft ruling appeal

A Business Day report on President Jacob Zuma’s application to appeal against the spy tapes judgment that set aside the 2009 decision to discontinue his prosecution for fraud and corruption points out that it presented additional grounds, although overlapping to some degree, with those offered in the application by the National Director of Public Prosecutions. One of these, notes the report, was to take issue with the High Court for not referring the case back to Advocate Shaun Abrahams for reconsideration but ordering instead that ‘Mr Zuma should face the charges as outlined in the indictment’. When the case was being argued in the High Court, all sides agreed that it would be appropriate for the court to order that Abrahams should reconsider the charges. But when the judgment came out, this was not part of the order. In his application for leave to appeal, Zuma’s lawyers said the court erred on this score.