Cape Town – Former president Jacob Zuma has reportedly launched a fight-back strategy in which he is requesting the African National Congress (ANC) and the Nelson Mandela Foundation to furnish him with financial statements which he believes will bolster his defence in his upcoming corruption trial.
According to News24, Zuma and his lawyers claim the statements will show that he didn’t benefit from the infamous arms deal.
The report, however, quoted sources within the ANC as saying the party did not have the requested documents in its possession.
“… after a thorough search, the ANC could not locate the documents being requested,” the sources said.
Zuma, 79, faces 16 charges of fraud, graft and racketeering linked to the 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and equipment from five European arms firms when he was deputy president.
He is accused of taking bribes from one of the firms, French defence giant Thales, which has been charged with corruption. Both Zuma and Thales have pleaded not guilty.
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Reports said that documents, drafted by Zuma’s lawyers, Vryheid-based BM Thusini Attorneys, indicated that the latest approach is very much a last resort for the former president, who has had the arms deal trial looming over him for the last three-and-a-half years.
The lawyers, Sunday Times said, requested a tranche of documents related to arms deal procurement in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The report quoted the spokesperson of the Jacob Zuma Foundation Mzwanele Manyi as saying: “We sent letters to prominent organisations and foundations that benefited from the arms deal”.
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Manyi, however, said he was not at liberty to disclose details of those foundations and organisations.
A report by The South African quoted the lawyers as saying that Mandela chaired most of the meetings where these arms deals were brokered.
“If they (arms deals) are as dodgy as the prosecution says they are, then uBaba (Zuma) says the focus must switch to others in power.
“The lawyers go on to say that Zuma was ‘reluctant’ to expose these files, as it would ultimately tarnish the image of the ANC for good. However, it is stated that this new tactic is ‘unavoidable’, given the severity of his own charge sheet,” the report said.
Ayikhale ? ??… https://t.co/lwB2yQuX9Q pic.twitter.com/nbthvCFoX0
— Dudu Zuma-Sambudla (@DZumaSambudla) August 18, 2021
Meanwhile, Zuma’s daughter, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, took to Twitter and retweeted a tweet she posted in 2020, saying: “It is unfair for the ANC to put my dad in the dock alone… the whole of the ANC post 1994 to date must be in the dock! lets see who actually leave in chains [sic].”
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
