A South African court ruled on Thursday that the long-delayed corruption case linked to a major arms deal involving former president Jacob Zuma and French defence company Thales can move forward, dismissing attempts to postpone the trial, News.Az reports, citing AFP.
The case relates to a $2 billion arms procurement agreement from the 1990s involving fighter jets, patrol boats and other military equipment purchased from five European defence firms.
Zuma is accused of accepting bribes from Thales in return for shielding the company from scrutiny during an investigation into the deal while he served as deputy president.
The proceedings have faced years of delays caused by judicial and prosecutorial recusals, along with numerous procedural objections in a strategy widely referred to as “Stop Stalingrad” — a term describing repeated legal appeals intended to exhaust and delay court action.
Delivering judgment at the High Court in Pietermaritzburg, Judge Nkosinathi Chili said the “interests of justice” required that the matter continue.
“Without this court’s intervention, there is a likelihood of grave injustice or the administration of justice being brought into disrepute,” he said.
The judge added that allowing the trial to proceed would cause no “cognisable harm or grave injustice.”
Zuma, 84, did not attend the hearing, and a trial date has not yet been announced.
Thales, formerly known as Thomson-CSF, and Zuma are facing more than a dozen charges, including fraud, corruption and racketeering. Both deny the allegations.
Often referred to as the “Teflon president,” Zuma served as South Africa’s leader from 2009 until 2018, when the ruling African National Congress (ANC) forced him to step down amid mounting corruption scandals surrounding his administration.
He also faces separate accusations of facilitating widespread looting of state resources during his presidency.
In 2021, Zuma received a 15-month prison sentence after refusing to testify before a commission investigating corruption and cronyism linked to his time in office.
He was later released on medical parole after serving two months of the sentence.
His imprisonment triggered widespread unrest, including protests, riots and looting that resulted in more than 350 deaths, marking South Africa’s deadliest violence since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.
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