The South African Justice postpones the trial for alleged corruption of former President Jacob Zuma

Aug. 1 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The High Court of the KwaZulu-Natal province announced on Monday the postponement of the trial against former South African President Jacob Zuma for alleged corruption, pending the Constitutional Court ruling on an appeal by the former president.

Zuma has filed a final appeal to try to remove the prosecutor in the case, Billy Downer, so the Provincial High Court must now wait for the Constitutional Court’s resolution, according to the News24 news portal.

This was announced this Monday by the judge in the case, Piet Koen, who has postponed until October 17 the trial for alleged corruption for nearly 800 payments that Zuma allegedly received in connection with a purchase of weapons from the French company Thales to modernize South Africa’s defense apparatus in the late 1990s.

The former president, who denies all charges, has filed an appeal to remove prosecutor Downer from the case, whom he does not consider impartial or independent. The public official, for his part, has indicated that Zuma’s appeals have failed.

The South African Constitutional Court sentenced former President Zuma to 15 months in prison for contempt in June 2021 after refusing to appear before the committee that is investigating corruption charges against him after his departure from power in 2018.

Zuma has become the first democratically elected president in South Africa to be sentenced to prison since the African National Congress (ANC) — a party he led between 2007 and 2017, when he was removed in an internal council by its vice president and current president, Cyril Ramaphosa– seized power in 1994.

Zuma’s imprisonment led to a wave of protests in the country that led to clashes and riots that resulted in several hundred deaths.