Article by: Dumisane Dube
Former president Jacob Zuma has pleaded not guilty to all corruption charges on Wednesday.
Zuma and the French arms company Thales are accused of corruption, racketeering, and money laundering linked to the arms deal.
Thales also pleaded not guilty to all charges.
His legal team, which now include Advocate Dali Mpofu, have filed a special plea that seeks to remove the State’s lead prosecutor Billy Downer from the case.
State Advocate Billy Downer has told the court that they are not able to respond to the defence’s special plea on Wednesday.
“We have formed an attitude that the State is ready to put the charges to the accused and between my Learned Friend and the State agree that they will then tender their plea formally in court for both the accused. I must also mention that we also agreed the application in terms of 106 I H is voluminous with a thousand pages with annexes. We all agreed that the State needs time to answer by the way of affidavits.” Said Downer.
It’s been more than 15 years since Zuma was implicated in the arms deal corruption.
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