A South African court on Tuesday postponed the trial of former President Jacob Zuma, who is serving a 15-month prison sentence, to 9 and 10 September due to his hospitalisation for an unknown diagnosis, South African justice announced.
Judge Piet Koen ruled that military doctors responsible for the health of the former South African President, who has been hospitalised for four days with an unknown diagnosis, have two weeks to submit a medical report on his condition.
“The case has been postponed until 9 and 10 September 2021. The medical report in respect of Mr Zuma must be submitted no later than 20 August 2021,” the judge announced.
The state can appoint an independent doctor to examine Zuma and determine his fitness to stand trial in court, the judge at the High Court in Pietermaritzburg, the capital of KwaZulu-Natal in the east of the country, said.
Zuma’s lawyer, Dali Mpofu, stressed that the state of health of the former South African head of state “is a matter of medical confidentiality”, adding that the defence and the state “do not know” his state of health.
Mpofu noted that the medical report could be submitted by Zuma’s doctor by 2 September.
Zuma’s lawyers further urged the court to postpone the trial until the former head of state is “fit” to appear in court in person.
However, lawyer Wim Trengove, representing the South African prosecution, argued that the hearing on Zuma’s state of health “should be held in open court”, pointing out that “the state wants the medical report to be delivered earlier so that it can consult its experts”.
In a letter released in the local press, a military doctor informed prison authorities and the Public Prosecution that Jacob Zuma apparently suffers from a “traumatic injury”, adding that the former President needs “six months of medical care”.
The prosecution considered information provided by military doctor Mcebisi Zukile Mdutywa as “generalisations”.
Zuma, 79, who has avoided South African justice for 20 years in a public corruption case related to arms procurement, was hospitalised last Friday to undergo a “routine medical examination by the military health services”, South Africa’s Department of Correctional Services announced.
“The former president, Jacob Zuma, is still in hospital. We do not know when he will be medically discharged,” spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo said on Tuesday.
Members of the African National Congress (ANC) loyal to Zuma called off a protest march to the entrance of the court to demand his release from Estcourt prison.
Before Zuma’s hospitalisation, the Pietermaritzburg High Court judge decided on 4 August to hear the former president’s application against the public prosecutor, lawyer Billy Downer, in person in a courtroom.
Jacob Zuma, who has been held since 8 July at the Estcourt prison centre near his official Nkandla home in KwaZulu-Natal, is arguing for the removal of the public prosecutor from the lead role in the corruption case he is facing in the South African courts in connection with an arms deal, claiming he “will not get a fair trial” because it is a “political persecution”.
The 20-year-old alleged bribery case involves Zuma and French arms manufacturer, Thales. Zuma, who was President between 2009 and 2018 faces 18 charges in connection with the case, including fraud, corruption, money laundering and extortion, relating to the purchase of military equipment from five European arms companies in 1999 when he was the country’s vice president.
