20, July 2021
South Africa: Zuma’s corruption trial to resume August 10 0
Jacob Zuma’s long-running corruption trial will resume on August 10, a South African judge ruled on Tuesday after the ex-president sought to have the case postponed because of the pandemic and recent unrest.
“The trial is adjourned to 10 to 13 August,” Judge Piet Koen said.
Zuma on Monday appeared in court via a video link from his prison, where he is serving a jail term for contempt of court on an unrelated matter.
His lawyers had applied to have the case postponed by up to three weeks because of the unrest and the Covid pandemic to allow time for the trial to resume physically.
The 79-year-old faces 16 charges of fraud, graft and racketeering related to the 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and equipment from five European arms firms when he was deputy president.
He is accused of taking bribes from one of the firms, French defence giant Thales, which has been charged with corruption and money laundering.
Both Zuma and Thales have entered pleas of not guilty.
His foundation immediately lauded the decision, tweeting: “The Constitution has prevailed at last!”
“There can be NO virtual criminal proceedings in the absence of an accused person who is unable to consult with his lawyers,” it said.
Zuma, once dubbed the “Teflon president”, began serving a 15-month jail sentence for contempt on July 8.
He was arrested for disobeying a Constitutional Court order to testify before a panel probing the plunder of state coffers during his nine-year presidency
Source: AFP
20, July 2021
Ambazonia: The 88-year-old paedophile has made it harder for bare necessities to enter Southern Cameroons 0
The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima says all fellow Ambazonian restoration groups do not rule out using any option to force the Biya French Cameroun regime to end its war and occupation of the Southern Cameroons homeland.
VP Dabney Yerima made the remarks on Monday, addressing Yaoundé’s refusal to enable the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to move ahead with reconstruction and development as Africa’s newest nation.
Thousands of Southern Cameroonians, including scores of children and dozens of women have been killed since the war started four years ago. A report recent sent to the European Union by the Cameroon Concord News Group put the damage on infrastructure at about $800 million.
“Southern Cameroonians in Ground 1, Ghana and in the West will never wait for long. The occupying regime is on its way out” Yerima said
The Southern Cameroons Interim Government and its affiliated groups have been defending the Ambazonia homeland in the face of incessant French Cameroun aggression.
Yerima warned that the enemy regime in French Cameroun continued procrastination in withdrawing its troops and acting on calls for a ceasefire would lead to a shameful collapse of the Francophone dictator in Yaoundé.
The 88-year-old French Cameroun paedophile has made it harder for bare necessities to enter Southern Cameroons and has also held up aid offered by international agencies.
By Chi Prudence Asong in London