Zuma and Thales applications for summary acquittals dismissed

The Pietermaritzburg High Court has thrown out an application by French arms company Thales and former President Jacob Zuma to have their arms deal corruption trial dismissed.

Former President Zuma and Thales applied to be summarily acquitted of the arms deal corruption and racketeering charges on the basis that unreasonable delays had resulted in the deaths of crucial witnesses, Thales representative Alain Thétard and Pierre Moynot.

Judgment

Zuma suffered another loss after Judge Nkosinathi Chili ruled that the corruption trial will now proceed as previously planned.

Chilli found that the court does not have the authority to withdraw the charges.

“On the facts presented to this court, I am not persuaded that it was sufficiently established that Thales will suffer irredeemable, irreparable, or insurmountable prejudice if the state were to allow to continue with the prosecution in the face of the deaths of Messrs Thetard and Moynot”.

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Another loss for Zuma

Chili added that the trial court had a “duty to consider all the evidence” before including the non-availability of defence witnesses before returning a verdict.

“I am not convinced that Mr Zuma’s right to a fair trial will be prejudiced by the non-availability of Messrs Thétard and Moynot. There is no justification for the ground of the order sought by Mr Zuma in the alternative in accordance with section 172 (1) (b) of the constitution

“I therefore make the following order, the application by both Mr Zuma and Thales is dismissed,” Chilli ruled.

Trial

Chili said it is up to the state to withdraw the charges.

The matter was postponed to the 4th of December, when the state will apply for the trial against Zuma and Thales to proceed regardless of any appeals lodged by the former president or the French arms company.

Zuma and Thales indicated that they would consider appealing the ruling made by the Pietermaritzburg High Court.

Thales application

In February, Thales cited lengthy delays that resulted in an “irremediable infringement of its constitutional rights to a fair trial” in an application to have charges against it dropped and for the company to be acquitted.

In court papers, Thales attorney Cameron Dunstan-Smith said the company pleaded not guilty to all the charges against it in May 2021 and that the case was postponed 16 times due to “no fault of its own”.

He added that since Thales was indicted in 2018, two key witnesses who are fundamental to its defence have passed away

Zuma application

Zuma also wanted his case against him to be summarily acquitted if Thales was successful in its application for an acquittal.

The former president’s lawyer, Advocate Naba Buthelezi, argued that the state “no longer had a winnable case” against Zuma because so many allegedly crucial witnesses have died.

However, the state argued that Zuma’s attempt to rely on the deaths of Moynot and Thétard to seek an order quashing his prosecution on the basis that he can no longer adduce or challenge their evidence is “fatally undermined” by a pivotal point he was allegedly personally involved in the corruption he stands accused of.

Arms deal prosecutor

In April, Chilli dismissed an application by Zuma to have his arms deal prosecutor, Billy Downer, removed, saying he does not believe the former president’s right to a fair trial would be compromised if Downer remained as prosecutor.

Zuma instructed his lawyer, Advocate Dali Mpofu, to petition the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to appeal Chili’s ruling.

Appeal

In that application for leave to appeal, Zuma relied on an SCA ruling that admonished then-judge president John Hlophe’s failure to timeously deliver a ruling on an appeal application in the 2004 New Clicks case to criticise Chili’s court for being “dilatory in how it has handled this application overall”.

Zuma said the SCA had criticised this conduct as “deliberate obstructionism on the part of a court of first instance or sheer laxity or unjustifiable or inexplicable inaction” in the New Clicks case.

Hlophe’s conduct in the case was blamed on deliberate obstructionism on the part of a court of first instance, sheer laxity, or unjustifiable or inexplicable inaction.

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‘Long complex ruling’

Zuma’s insistence that he was owed a long and complex ruling on his latest attempts to remove Downer – despite the fact that multiple courts had conclusively rejected his various complaints – was just one of many arguments he made to the SCA as part of his efforts to revive an appeal that Chili found to have no reasonable prospects of success.

Zuma’s second failed attempt to force Downer’s removal followed his unsuccessful efforts to privately prosecute Downer and journalist Karn Maughan for the alleged violation of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act, through the sharing of publicly available court papers, which contained a sick note from one of the former president’s doctors.

Irrevalance

In Zuma’s SCA application to appeal the dismissal of his latest Downer removal bid, the former president maintains that the fact that his private prosecution of Downer was invalidated as an abuse “was irrelevant in relation to the reasonableness or otherwise of [my] perception of bias on the part of Mr Downer”.

“Whether the private prosecution was successful or not is immaterial to the reasonableness of the perception of [Zuma]. It was the fact of the private prosecution, which is material, not its outcome. It will never change that I privately prosecuted Downer, albeit unsuccessfully,” Zuma said.

In February 2025, Zuma’s counsel argued against multiple court findings that the former president had engaged in Stalingrad legal tactics, and had pursued futile cases and appeals with the sole aim of delaying his arms trial and avoiding his day in court.

They claimed that the state was responsible because it refused to fire Downer.

Zuma wants Downer to be removed from the prosecution over alleged bias, saying his right to a fair trial would be infringed if the prosecutor remained.

Corruption

Zuma is accused of 18 charges of corruption, racketeering, fraud and tax evasion.

The arms deal case was declared trial-ready three years ago but has been delayed by his repeated failed efforts to force the removal of Downer.

It is the state’s case that Schabir Shaik facilitated a bribe agreement between Zuma and Thales where the then deputy president was allegedly promised R500 000 a year, in exchange for his political protection for any potential investigation into the multibillion-rand arms deal.

While Shaik denied any wrongdoing, he was nonetheless found guilty of involvement in that corrupt scheme.

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