Zuma and Thales back in court for judgment on corruption charges

French arms company Thales will find out whether charges against the company will be dropped following chronic delays by former President Jacob Zuma’s failed challenges to his prosecution.

Legal teams for both Thales and Zuma are expected to debate the future progress of the trial in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) on Tuesday.

Judge Nkosinathi Chili reserved his ruling in April after hearing detailed arguments from Zuma and Thales, both of whom are seeking a permanent stay of prosecution.

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.

Trial delays

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”.

During Thales’ arguments, advocate Barry Roux, representing the French arms company, stated that no witnesses could give evidence in Thales’ defence because the officials who could have testified “are now dead.”

ALSO READ: Zuma’s lawyers argue for acquittal due to lengthy delays in the arms deal case [VIDEO]

Zuma acquittal

Zuma also wants his case against him summarily acquitted if Thales is 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.

Unhappiness

In his latest appeal, Zuma expressed unhappiness that Chili took nine months and three months, respectively, to deliver rulings dismissing the former president’s second attempt to force Downer’s removal and his efforts to appeal that ruling.

*On reading of the judgment (11 paragraphs more than six pages) dismissing the application as well as the judgement (15 paragraphs over six pages) refusing leave to appeal, the court a quo’s level of proportional, or reciprocal engagement with the legal issues that were placed before it for adjudication are wholly inadequate,” Zuma said.

“This does not align with the nature, history, importance and complexity of this matter,” he added.

ALSO READ: Zuma advocate argues NPA ‘no longer has winnable case’

Another loss

In April, Chilli dismissed an application by Zuma to have his arms deal prosecutor removed, saying he does not believe he 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.

Latest appeal

In his latest appeal, Zuma has relied on a 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 Chil’s court for being “dilatory in how it has handled this application overall”, according to News24.

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.

At the time, Hlophe (now National Assembly leader of Zuma’s MK Party) reportedly said he “couldn’t care less” about the New Clicks ruling.

ALSO READ: Zuma’s bid to force Downer’s removal from arms deal case dismissed

Removal of Downer

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 the career state advocate 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.

ALSO READ: ConCourt dismisses Zuma’s private prosecution appeal against Ramaphosa

Abuse of court

That case was condemned as an “abuse” by multiple courts and invalidated.

The SCA found that the facts demonstrated “that the private prosecution of Mr Downer is an abuse of the process of the court” because it was “instituted as a further step in a sustained attempt by Mr Zuma to obstruct, delay and prevent his criminal trial” and “to have Mr Downer removed as the prosecutor in Mr Zuma’s trial”.

This “ulterior purpose” rendered the private prosecution unlawful, SCA Judge Nathan Ponnan said – before adding that the charges that Zuma had sought to pursue against Downer and this writer were “patently a hopeless case” and “obviously unsustainable”.

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.

Stalingrad

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.

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.

ALSO READ: Downer dismisses Zuma’s allegations of ‘racist undertones’ in legal strategy