Opinion says 21 year court battle over arms deal charges shows how legal delays let ANC looters evade accountability too.
In World War II, when Soviet leader Josef Stalin gave orders to his troops to defend the city of Stalingrad at whatever cost, they knew they would have to fight for every room in every house on every street.
In the end, they wore out their enemy – the Nazi invaders – and won the day.
Perhaps Jacob Zuma was hoping for a similar outcome from his 21-year-long struggle to evade justice on corruption charges in relation to the 1999 arms deal.
His Stalingrad defence – the repeated back and forth trips to myriad courts, on myriad points of law – may have been halted after the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg ruled that there be no more delays.
Ironically, the case was postponed for trial to February next year… another delay.
For someone who has proclaimed his innocence and believes he will have his name cleared in court, Zuma has bent over backwards to delay that very chance of exoneration.
However distasteful that attempted derailing of justice may be, it is nothing compared to the example it has set for a host of other ANC apparatchiks who have been accused of looting and malfeasance.
That’s why we’re still waiting to see these criminals behind bars.
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