{"id":2905,"date":"2021-01-22T19:46:19","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T19:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=2905"},"modified":"2021-01-22T18:03:33","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T18:03:33","slug":"judgment-due-in-thales-application-for-charges-in-zuma-corruption-trial-to-be-dropped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/judgment-due-in-thales-application-for-charges-in-zuma-corruption-trial-to-be-dropped","title":{"rendered":"Judgment due in Thales\u2019 application for charges in Zuma corruption trial to be dropped"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Pietermaritzburg \u2013 French arms manufacturer Thales is set to hear on Friday whether the corruption charges against it in the long-running Arms Deal case will be set aside.<\/p>\n

In October last year, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) argued that it had charged Thales with racketeering because the company knowingly participated in a scheme of bribing former president Jacob Zuma in return for his influence and political protection.<\/p>\n

This was the main point of the argument of the prosecuting body before the Pietermaritzburg High Court, where Thales, who is a co-accused in the Zuma corruption trial, was heard.<\/p>\n

Racketeering is when individuals engage in organised crime and try to cover their tracks using legitimate companies and payment systems.<\/p>\n

The French arms company is being represented by Advocate Barry Roux.<\/p>\n

The matter was heard before a full bench of the court, consisting of Judge Mahendra Chetty, Judge Antony Van Zyl and Alsa Bezuidenhout.<\/p>\n

In October, Trengove told the full bench that at some point Thales paid a bribe to Zuma via Nkobi holdings, a company owned by convicted Durban businessman Schabir Shaik and \u201cdressed up\u201d as a \u201cservice fee\u201d. But to protect itself, it kept a distance and utilised its proxy, Shaik.<\/p>\n

Nkobi was Thales\u2019 black economic empowerment partner during the country\u2019s multibillion-rand procurement of arms in the late 1990s. The court heard that Thales entered into a partnership with Nkobi because it believed that the company had the right political connections in the ruling party and the connection was Zuma, who brought in \u201cpolitical capital\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trengove told the court that Zuma once attended a meeting in London in November 1998 to meet Thales executives and the aim was to persuade them that Shaik\u2019s Nkobi was the right local company to partner with.<\/p>\n

It is alleged that Shaik revelled in the fact that he could use his political connections and bring Zuma to a meeting to plead his case. Eventually, the deal was clinched, and Thales had to partner with Nkobi.<\/p>\n

Trengove further told the court that their case against Thales was reliant on circumstantial evidence. One piece of the evidence is the now-infamous \u201cencrypted fax\u201d sent in 2000 by Nkobi Holdings to Thales negotiating a R500 000 annual bribe to Zuma.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey knew at the time that Mr Shaik was bribing Mr Zuma and what they did \u2026 was to join in that project of bribing Mr Zuma and the (Durban) high court found that to be so,\u201d Trengove argued on behalf of the State.<\/p>\n

According to Trengove, Shaik \u201chad Zuma in his pockets\u201d to such an extent that over a period of 10 years, he bribed him 783 times. However, he did not specify the amounts of money or favours that were advanced to Zuma in all these instances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they joined in (Thales), they agreed to pay Mr Zuma those bribes\u2026 They realised that they were buying influence (of Zuma),\u201d Trengove further argued.<\/p>\n

In his closing argument on behalf of Thales, Roux pleaded with the full bench to carefully listen to his client\u2019s argument that while they were in partnership with Shaik\u2019s companies, they did not know that there were dealings with Zuma.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is a corrupt relationship between Shaik and Zuma\u2026 is there a corruption because of racketeering, a racket or because of plain corruption because there was a big promise of payment? Which one?\u201d asked Roux.<\/p>\n

The case against Zuma has been postponed until February 23.<\/p>\n

Political Bureau<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Pietermaritzburg \u2013 French arms manufacturer Thales is set to hear on Friday whether the corruption charges against it in the long-running Arms Deal case will be set aside. In October last year, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) argued that it had charged Thales with racketeering because the company knowingly participated in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-2905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nJudgment due in Thales\u2019 application for charges in Zuma corruption trial to be dropped - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pietermaritzburg \u2013 French arms manufacturer Thales is set to hear on Friday whether the corruption charges against it in ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/judgment-due-in-thales-application-for-charges-in-zuma-corruption-trial-to-be-dropped\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judgment due in Thales\u2019 application for charges in Zuma corruption trial to be dropped\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pietermaritzburg \u2013 French arms manufacturer Thales is set to hear on Friday whether the corruption charges against it in ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/judgment-due-in-thales-application-for-charges-in-zuma-corruption-trial-to-be-dropped\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-22T19:46:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-600b135a82513.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/judgment-due-in-thales-application-for-charges-in-zuma-corruption-trial-to-be-dropped#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/judgment-due-in-thales-application-for-charges-in-zuma-corruption-trial-to-be-dropped\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Judgment due in Thales\u2019 application for charges in Zuma corruption trial to be dropped\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-22T19:46:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/judgment-due-in-thales-application-for-charges-in-zuma-corruption-trial-to-be-dropped\"},\"wordCount\":585,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/judgment-due-in-thales-application-for-charges-in-zuma-corruption-trial-to-be-dropped#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/01\/img-600b135a82513.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/judgment-due-in-thales-application-for-charges-in-zuma-corruption-trial-to-be-dropped#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/judgment-due-in-thales-application-for-charges-in-zuma-corruption-trial-to-be-dropped\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/judgment-due-in-thales-application-for-charges-in-zuma-corruption-trial-to-be-dropped\",\"name\":\"Judgment due in Thales\u2019 application for charges in Zuma corruption trial to be dropped - 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