{"id":5096,"date":"2021-02-23T23:10:56","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T23:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=5096"},"modified":"2021-02-23T18:04:08","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T18:04:08","slug":"calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court","title":{"rendered":"Calm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Pietermaritzburg \u2013 Unlike in the past when former president Jacob appeared before the Pietermaritzburg High Court for his long running corruption trial, on Tuesday morning the provincial capital was calm.<\/p>\n

This was as Zuma and his large entourage of security team and supporters were not present. That was in anticipation that the matter would be postponed to May 17 this year.<\/p>\n

Zuma is accused of pocketing bribes during the 1998-1999 procurement of arms. He denies the charges against him, saying they are politically motivated.<\/p>\n

The bribes, including a R500 000 annual retainer, were allegedly paid by his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, and they came from Thales, a French arms company that scored tenders to supply arms during the arms procurement process.<\/p>\n

Inside the court, legal eagles for Zuma and Thales, accused of bribing him, had already assembled. Zuma’s team comprised advocate Mpilo Sikhakhane and advocate Rudolph Baloyi.<\/p>\n

Thales\u2019 legal team was led by Advocate Barry Roux.<\/p>\n

By 7am, Freedom Park, the park opposite the high court was used by people parking their cars while others were seen relaxing.<\/p>\n

The large park is normally used by Zuma’s supporters to gather while waiting for him to address them. On the day, only a handful of police officers and Msunduzi (Pietermaritzburg) security personnel were seen. Within the court precinct, news channels had set up giving their viewers some update about the high profile case.<\/p>\n

With the postponement known in advance, the Msunduzi municipality even informed its residents there would be no road closures.<\/p>\n

[email protected]<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Pietermaritzburg \u2013 Unlike in the past when former president Jacob appeared before the Pietermaritzburg High Court for his long running corruption trial, on Tuesday morning the provincial capital was calm. This was as Zuma and his large entourage of security team and supporters were not present. That was in anticipation that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5095,"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-5096","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":"\nCalm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pietermaritzburg \u2013 Unlike in the past when former president Jacob appeared before the Pietermaritzburg High Court for hi ...\" \/>\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\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Calm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pietermaritzburg \u2013 Unlike in the past when former president Jacob appeared before the Pietermaritzburg High Court for hi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court\" \/>\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=\"2021-02-23T23:10:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-603543800232f.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=\"1 minute\" \/>\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\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Calm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-23T23:10:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court\"},\"wordCount\":265,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-603543800232f.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\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court\",\"name\":\"Calm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-603543800232f.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-23T23:10:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Pietermaritzburg \u2013 Unlike in the past when former president Jacob appeared before the Pietermaritzburg High Court for hi ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-603543800232f.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-603543800232f.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":404,\"caption\":\"Calm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Calm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Calm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court - South Africa","description":"Pietermaritzburg \u2013 Unlike in the past when former president Jacob appeared before the Pietermaritzburg High Court for hi ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Calm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court","og_description":"Pietermaritzburg \u2013 Unlike in the past when former president Jacob appeared before the Pietermaritzburg High Court for hi ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2021-02-23T23:10:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":404,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-603543800232f.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Calm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court","datePublished":"2021-02-23T23:10:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court"},"wordCount":265,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-603543800232f.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\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court","name":"Calm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-603543800232f.jpg","datePublished":"2021-02-23T23:10:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Pietermaritzburg \u2013 Unlike in the past when former president Jacob appeared before the Pietermaritzburg High Court for hi ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-603543800232f.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-603543800232f.jpg","width":720,"height":404,"caption":"Calm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/calm-in-pietermaritzburg-as-jacob-zuma-skips-court#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Calm in Pietermaritzburg as Jacob Zuma skips court"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}