Zuma’s massive legal bill ‘to avoid prosecution on spy tapes’
The state attorney has revealed that the Presidency has spent R15.3 million of public money over the past nine years on the ‘Spy Tapes’ case – which includes all legal fees relating to the National Prosecuting Authority’s decision to decline to prosecute former president Jacob Zuma on charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering.
According to a statement released by the Democratic Alliance on Tuesday (13 March), Zuma is personally responsible for the fees as the legal action was against the former president in his personal capacity, for crimes he allegedly committed before he was president.
“He was not a respondent in that case in his capacity as president of the Republic of South Africa. As such, this amounts to R15.3 million of irregular spending by the government to keep Jacob Zuma out of jail,” it said.
However President Cyril Ramaphosa has stated that he has no reason to believe that there is a basis to seek the recovery of the R15.3 million spent by his predecessor, his spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“All expenditure incurred by former president Zuma was incurred in line with the provisions of the State Attorney Act,” Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Khusela Diko told News24.
“There is no basis at this point for the president to believe that this money should be personally recovered as it was in line with the Act.”
However she did confirm that the figures provided to the DA in a letter from the state attorney on Tuesday, saying it was the same provided to the Presidency based on an enquiry by its office.
DA won’t back down
In the statement, DA leader Mmusi Maimane said that the party had consulted its legal team and begun the legal process of ‘retrieving every cent’ of the R15.3 million from Jacob Zuma.
“As this money was spent by the Presidency, we call on President Cyril Ramaphosa to join our legal action to recover this money from Jacob Zuma.
“The new President cannot talk tough on corruption and wasteful spending, yet turn a blind eye to this blatant abuse of public funds by Jacob Zuma,” he said.
Maimane added that the DA was still looking to ensure Zuma would have his day in court and answer to the alleged 783 counts of fraud, corruption, money-laundering and racketeering against him.
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