Now Zuma tackles NDPP

2007-06-06 15:56

Pretoria - Jacob Zuma has asked the Pretoria High Court to set aside an order granting the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) permission to approach banks and solicitors in the United Kingdom as part of the investigation into him and arms company Thint.

Earlier this week, the Durban High Court gave the National Prosecuting Authority the go-ahead to retrieve documents from Mauritius relating to arms deal corruption allegedly involving Zuma.

In an affidavit, signed in May, Zuma asks the court to set aside a judgment by Judge Ben du Plessis who in March ratified a letter of request for international assistance from Leonard McCarthy, the head of the NDPP.

Zuma has asked the Pretoria High Court to be joined in the proceedings asking that the ratification be set aside.

Would have opposed application

In his affidavit to the court he said he was never informed about the application and only learned about it when a journalist approached him.

He said had he known about the application, he would have opposed it.

McCarthy wants the assistance of the manager of Barclays Bank London, where the account of solicitors Berwin Leighton Paisner is held.

He also wants to approach the solicitors regarding details of a payment made in August 2001 from their bank account to an entity in South Africa named Cay Nominees Ltd.

"There are some indications that the payment may in fact be linked to Thomson/Thales [Thint] and their undertaking to pay Zuma R500 000 per annum as a bribe," McCarthy said in his letter.

"If so, it appears that Berwin Leighton Paisner's account was used to launder the payment of money from Thomson/Thales to Zuma," he said.

The state has yet to file a replying affidavit and no date has been set down to decide on Zuma's request.

- SAPA