Cape Town – Former South African president Jacob Zuma has reportedly been admitted to hospital and is undergoing tests for an unknown ailment.
According to EWN, this was said by the Jacob Zuma Foundation on Monday during a media briefing on the side-lines of his corruption trial at the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
“He’s in hospital and we’ll keep giving updates as we go along. He’s unwell and let’s leave it there,” the report quoted foundation’s spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi as saying.
Manyi did not give details regarding which hospital Zuma was in, News24 reproted.
He said that doctors were running tests, but they did not have test results as yet.
“He is under strict observation,” Manyi said.
“He is not even at home, he is in hospital. I will not say which hospital because that is a security issue. We will give updates as it unfolds,” said Manyi according to the report.
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Zuma’s much-postponed corruption trial was expected to resume with witness testimony on Monday in Pietermaritzburg.
The trial, however, ran into fresh legal delays and health problems, as Zuma launched a new procedural battle on the eve of his 80th birthday.
The former president faces 16 counts of fraud, graft and racketeering over the purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and equipment while he was vice president in the 1990s.
The closely-followed trial started in May 2021 after repeated postponements as Zuma’s legal team battled to have the charges dropped.
Zuma’s defence asked the High Court to postpone the case to allow him to exhaust his options of appeal in a complaint against the lead prosecutor, Billy Downer.
ALSO READ | Jacob Zuma to miss graft trial after ‘medical emergency’
In October, Zuma asked for Downer to be dropped from the case, accusing him of bias. He contended Downer leaked confidential documents to the media.
But the Supreme Court of Appeal last month ruled against him, saying the petition had “no reasonable prospect of success”.
Downer argued in court on Monday that the application for another postponement was another “delaying tactic”.
It “erodes the public’s confidence in the system of justice because it’s yet another postponement in the long-running series of postponements,” he warned.
Mpofu denied this, saying Zuma “has consistently done everything he can for this trial to proceed.”
Judge Piet Koen granted a postponement to May 17 to let the appeal process “take its due course.”
But, he warned, “the future progress of the trial must be managed properly.”
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Additional information by AFP
