South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) dismissed former president Jacob Zuma’s application to appeal his corruption trial which is due to resume in April, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Thursday, reported Africa News.
The NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said the NPA welcomed the judgment and will now focus on ensuring that the trial resumes in April.
Zuma is accused of taking bribes from French defense group Thales in a case that is more than 20 years old. He faces 16 counts of fraud, corruption, and racketeering charges.
The corruption trial of South Africa’s former president began in May last year, after numerous postponements and delays due to a number of appeals.
In an unreviewable decision, the SCA gave a ruling that Zuma’s claims have “no reasonable prospect of success on appeal and that there are no other compelling reasons for an appeal to be heard”.
In October, the court rejected the the79-year-old former head of state’s request to get the attorney general, Billy Downer, whom he accuses of bias, removed from the case. His lawyers accused the attorney general of leaking confidential case information to reporters and being a witness in a separate case against the former leader by the opposition party, the Democratic Alliance.
Zuma asked the Supreme Court of Appeal to rule on his ability to appeal the decision and filed four appeals. All the appeals were dismissed.
South Africa’s former president was sentenced to 15 months in prison after he failed to appear before a commission investigating state corruption under his presidency (2009-2018). He was first indicted on 20 June 2005.
His imprisonment in July last year led to an unprecedented wave of violence and looting in the country in which more than 300 died. There was an estimated $1.7bn damage in property losses.
The trial is set down to resume on 11 April.
