Zuma denies abusing taxpayers’ money with ‘Stalingrad’ technique
Former president Jacob Zuma denies deliberately delaying his case but the state says his stalling tactics have, so far, ‘been successful’
Former president Jacob Zuma says the state’s argument that he abused taxpayers’ money with a Stalingrad-style of litigation aimed at ensuring he never went on trial for corruption is “false” and “empty”. “It’s not true. I’m not controlling the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) as an organ of state. I’m not controlling the courts. I’m not. I don’t have that power they are talking about,” he told Business Day on Friday, shortly after judgment in his permanent stay of prosecution application was reserved. The NPA says Zuma’s Stalingrad defence — a term used by his former advocate Kemp J Kemp to describe how the former president intended to fight his prosecution “in every room, in every street, in every house” — had “cost the state between R16.7m and R32m”. “It has so far been successful in that it has allowed Mr Zuma to escape prosecution for almost 15 years,” the NPA argued, adding that SA’s courts have made it clear that such a litigation strategy should be discouraged”. On Frid...
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