Jacob Zuma's corruption case postponed

The corruption case against former South African President Jacob Zuma was postponed to June 8, the Durban High Court announced on Friday.

The lawyers for the South African state and those for the defendant agreed to request a postponement of the justice proceedings to June 8, which came a few minutes after Zuma appeared briefly in court to face 16 charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering, South Africa's TimesLive reported.

The charges related to 783 payments which he allegedly received as a bribe to protect French arms company Thint from an investigation into the controversial multi-billion rand arms deal. The alleged bribe was facilitated by Zuma's former financial adviser Schabir Shaik.

Both the state and defence agreed that the matter would be postponed in order for Zuma to bring an application to challenge the National Prosecute Authority's decision to reinstate charges against him. The defence said it expected that to be done by mid-May.

There was jubilation among hundreds of Zuma supporters gathered outside the court, who chanted following the postponement announcement.

--IANS

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