Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
The long-running corruption trial of South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma has resumed with the proceedings held online, despite the deadly violence that rocked the country following his imprisonment over another case a week ago.
Zuma appeared by video link in the court on Monday, seeking a further delay in his graft trial relating to a $2 billion arms deal in 1999 when he was deputy president. He denies the charges.
Although the session was held virtually in a bid to prevent another wave of violence, security was tight around the High Court in the southeastern city of Pietermaritzburg, the capital of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Zuma’s home Province.
Armed police and soldiers secured the area around the court as a brown military vehicle towered over armored police vehicles and helicopter flew above.
During the session, Zuma’s lawyer Dali Mpofu argued that the trial should be postponed for Zuma to appear in person as opposed to virtually. Zuma, who attended the proceedings wearing a dark suit and a red tie, said nothing.
Mpofu went on to say that the former president had not been able to properly consult his legal team after turning himself in to police in the early hours of July 8 to begin serving a 15-month jail sentence for contempt of the country’s highest court.
The Constitutional Court had ordered police to arrest Zuma because he had refused to appear at a corruption hearing session earlier this year.
The corruption inquiry, chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, has been investigating charges of graft against Zuma in his time in power from 2009 to 2018. The former South African president has denied wrongdoing, and claims that Zondo has personal motives.
That inquiry is different from the arms deal trial that Zuma also denies.
