Former President Jacob Zuma Calls Out Court’s Ruling As Unfair

Former South African President Jacob Zuma has confirmed that he will be appealing against Pretoria High Court’s ruling on his legal costs. He took to Twitter to post a video message explaining why he believed the state should continue footing his legal bill.

 In the video, Zuma said that he has instructed his lawyers to appeal the court’s judgment which says the state should not be liable for his legal fees. He said while he respects the court’s ruling, sometimes it is necessary to look at the evidence presented in a case more than once.

The former President pointed out that the state is not fair to have paid for cases of several leaders of the apartheid system, while it has directed people like him who have fought for the democratic state to pay for themselves.

“I’m saying this because many leaders of the apartheid system – some of whom killed my colleagues – they were charged and there were quite a number of them… the state paid for their cases, not just one amount, very huge amounts. Paid by this very democratic state, that we all fought to bring about,” Zuma said adding, “But the very same state is saying, me, one of among those who fought this very democratic state, I must pay for myself. So apartheid killers they must be defended by the state… fighters of the democratic country, they must pay for themselves.”

Zuma’s video message follows the court ruling ordered last week that ordered him to pay back the legal fees himself and stopped the government from paying for Zuma’s personal legal fees for a criminal case against him while he was in office. Notably, Zuma, who resigned in February, was involved in a court case while in office as the president of South Africa for which the government has paid over US$1 million in legal fees even after Zuma left office.