Koen reserved judgment until 26 October. Should the application fail, it is expected that further argument will be led on Zuma’s fitness to stand trial, within the context of his recent medical parole, which interrupted a 15-month sentence of contempt.
Instead, advocate Wim Trengove told the court Zuma’s arguments consisted of conjecture he could not prove; hence, he was asking the court to allow an evidentiary inquiry as another shot at validating his political conspiracy theories around the charges that have haunted him since 2005.
The rule, developed in 1984, says the relief sought by an applicant should be granted only if the facts stated by the respondent in its answering affidavit, read with the facts the respondent admitted in the applicant’s prayers, justify the order sought. He said Zuma acknowledged that his case did not hinge on a dispute of fact, but was instead asking for oral evidence as a way of trotting out anew, arguments that not only Downer but the NPA as a whole had allowed political meddling to taint the case against him irredeemably.
The court could rule on the first part of Zuma’s twofold application — Downer’s removal in terms of section 106 — and in doing so decide the matter on the “admitted facts”, without resorting to oral evidence. Failing this, he said, he could refer the remaining issues to trial.
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