Former president Jacob Zuma has escaped the dock again – for now.
His corruption trial was finally meant to get under way before Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Piet Koen on Monday morning.
But proceedings wound up being postponed again on the back of an application from Zuma to stay them. He is awaiting the outcome of his application for Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) Judge President Mandisa Maya to reconsider her court’s dismissal of his application for leave to appeal the outcome of his special plea.
His application for a postponement was opposed by the state, but Koen in his ruling found Zuma had a right to appeal and that the court didn’t have the discretion “to deny those appeal rights statutorily ordained, unless perhaps in the clearest of cases where there is an abuse of rights”.