Staff Reporter
Former president Jacob Zuma will have to wait for another day for the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein to hear his challenge to the estimated R10-million personal costs order granted against him in his failed state capture report litigation.
The hearing had been set for Thursday this week, but parties to the matter agreed to postpone it indefinitely in the wake of the rapid spread of the COVID-19 which saw South Africa’s tally of positive cases shoot to 709 this Wednesday morning.
“All parties agreed to an indefinite postponement of the matter due to the coronavirus, because it would be difficult to travel,” SCA registrar Paul Myburgh told The Free Stater.
“No date has been set for the case and the parties agreed to consider a new date at a later stage,” he added.
Zuma was due to appear in the SCA after he was granted leave to appeal against the North Gauteng High Court’s ruling, handed down in December 2017, that he must pay the legal costs in his personal capacity for unsuccessfully challenging former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s “State of Capture” report.
This was despite the fact that he had challenged the report in his capacity as the head of the state.
Madonsela’s report led to the establishment of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, also known as the Zondo Commission.
Zuma is expected to use the SCA hearing to again ventilate his arguments that the inquiry into state capture was established in an unconstitutional manner because he as president was not allowed to choose the judge who would preside over the commission.
Madonsela had conducted the investigation after receiving complaints in connection with alleged improper and unethical conduct by the former president and other state functionaries relating to the appointment of cabinet ministers and directors and the awarding of state contracts as well as other benefits to companies linked to the Gupta family.