Defence promises 'Stalingrad' battle

The State is "marshalling evidence for trial" against Jacob Zuma, State prosecutor Billy Downer told the Durban High Court yesterday.

But the NPA today said it had not taken a decision to charge the former deputy president for corruption, fraud and money-laundering.

It said in a statement: "The fact that we may be 'marshalling evidence' as part of our investigations cannot be construed as a confirmation that a decision to prosecute has already been taken and especially not when we have explicitly stated the contrary."

Meanwhile, the NPA's attempts to marshal" evidence look set to be characterised by increasingly ugly wrangling between Zuma's lawyers and the State - with lawyers for Zuma and French arms company Thint launching a full-scale battle to keep allegedly damning evidence against them in Mauritius and out of the State's hands.

And, if Zuma and Thint fail to stop the State from collecting the originals of 14 documents used to convict Zuma's former financial adviser Schabir Shaik of corruption and fraud, they have promised to challenge the request in the Mauritian courts.

Central to Zuma's objection to the request is his claim that the State unlawfully failed to disclose the "political" nature of his alleged offence to Mauritian authorities.

Revealing his presidential ambitions for the first time in court documents, Zuma has claimed that the State's investigation was "engineered" to tarnish him before the ANC's presidential candidate elections at the end of the year.

In papers before the Pretoria High Court - in which Zuma is fighting another State request to UK authorities for information about his financial affairs - he said "political motive" was behind the charges against him.

"The issue of a political motive as a component of the investigation directed at all my affairs, has been central to my resistance to the manner of the investigation," said Zuma.

Downer slammed these "conspiracy theories", stressing that "there is not a shred of evidence" for the claims.

"The complaint is without substance … repeating the conspiracies doesn't strengthen the nature of unwarranted allegations," he said.

Fighting for the State's right to obtain the originals of the Mauritian documents, Downer said Zuma and Thint's efforts to halt this process could "irreparably damage" the state's investigation.

"With tears in our eyes, we say that these documents are cogent and relevant to our investigation … and we should really be able to obtain them."

Downer called Zuma and Thint's opposition part of a "full-scale and cutthroat defence" in which the state expected to "prove every point".

The State used copies of the disputed documents - which include what it calls "the damning" diary of Thint representative Alain Thethard - to show that Shaik had orchestrated a R500 000 bribe for Zuma from Thint, in exchange for his protection from a potentially damaging arms deal inquiry.

But Zuma's legal team say that they will refuse to accept these copies as evidence, should he be put on trial.

The NPA has already won an order from Durban High Court allowing prosecutors to request the documents. Zuma and Thint will appeal against that decision in the Supreme Court of Appeals in September, but are trying to stop the State from obtaining the documents prior to that appeal.

Addressing Downer's claims that Zuma was trying to delay the State from finalising its investigations, Zuma's counsel Kemp J Kemp SC claimed this opposition was "based on perfectly legitimate grounds".

"This is not a battle where you send a champion out and have a little fight and that's it … this is more like Stalingrad," he said, referring to the bloodiest battle in world history.

Judge Jan Hugo yesterday reserved judgment in the case.

With acknowledgement to Karyn Maughan, Monica Laganparsad and Cape Argus.