LETTER: Zuma judge opens a can of worms

Reflecting on former president Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial, one wonders if we are living like Alice, through the looking glass.

Judge Piet Koen allowed the latest postponement so that a rescission application to the Supreme Court of Appeal can be dealt with, after which the trial will continue. But how does he arrive at that conclusion when according to his interpretation of the law any appeal on anything must run its course, meaning to the Constitutional Court?

Any half-intelligent observer can guess that new applications will come fast and furiously from the Zuma camp, either after or concurrently with this one, all of which will be subject to many appeals “running their course”.

Does the judge realise what a can of worms has been opened by his less than robust handling of this issue? It means, in effect, that no defendant with resources, including the proceeds of crime, need ever stand trial.

Or only, as the Cheshire Cat said, “When the day becomes the night and the sky becomes the sea, when the clock strikes heavy and there’s no time for tea.”

Sydney Kaye, Cape Town

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