S. Africa tries to reclaim public funds spent of ex-leader

2025-10-18 06:29:33

(MENAFN) Reports indicate that South Africa is attempting to reclaim public funds spent on former President Jacob Zuma’s legal fees, but his lawyer argues that Zuma should not be held liable for the “unlawful” state payments.

The High Court in Pretoria is preparing for a significant hearing as the Presidency and the State Attorney seek reimbursement of over R28 million used to cover Zuma’s legal battles, stemming from a 2024 Supreme Court of Appeal ruling. That decision determined that Zuma was not entitled to taxpayer-funded legal support and that the state should be repaid.

Zuma’s legal representative, Advocate Thabani Masuku, told the court that it is unusual for the Presidency and the State Attorney—who previously defended the financing of Zuma’s legal cases—to now demand repayment.

”When the DA and EFF challenged the decisions of the state (to pay Zuma’s legal fees), there were two options available to the state — to relook at their decisions and to do what is called self-review, to say we have looked at the challenges coming to us, self-review and we think we were wrong. Mr Zuma took refuge in that, to say they are standing in their position.

”Today they are asking Mr Zuma to be saddled with a R28 million on the premise that to do so is to vindicate the rule of law. What law are you vindicating? Mr Zuma is a victim of unconstitutional violence. The defences we have raised are in the context of that debate,” Masuku said.

He further argued that the Presidency and State Attorney are mistaken in assuming that the SCA ruling automatically imposes a legal obligation on Zuma to reimburse the state, asserting that “the state is the perpetrator of this unconstitutional violence.”

”He asked for money. That is okay, once he put it in the system, the system had to act constitutionally. He was not asking for the system to act unconstitutionally. If he had known, the very first time he asked for these costs to be paid, if he had known that this was an unauthorised payment, that would have been a different case,” Masuku added.

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