April 6 is a Friday, which is already cause for celebration, but it’s also a massive day for a certain JG Zuma.
Our former president is due to appear in court on 16 charges, which means an end to the maxing and relaxing he was enjoying in KZN, and of course the state witness list has been leaked.
It’s a sizeable list, with 207 names, but there are a few that stand out from the rest in terms of the dirt they could potentially dish.
Fraud, corruption, racketeering and money laundering – just another day at the office for JZ, but let’s take a look at five witnesses that could spell the end of that infamous cackle.
Below from Huff Post SA:
Patricia de Lille
De Lille is widely acknowledged as the original whistleblower in the arms deal, presenting the infamous “De Lille dossier” that contained allegations of corruption around the deal to Parliament in 1999.
De Lille was one of those who spearheaded the campaign for accountability in relation to the deal, calling for a commission of inquiry while her life was reportedly being threatened. In 2004, she testified in the successful prosecution of Shaik.
Nora Fakude-Nkuna
Fakude-Nkuna [below] and Jacob Zuma were alleged to have a “close” relationship. She kick-started the Nkandla project for the former president in February 2000. Her company, Bohlabela Wheels, paid architects R34,000 to design the residence. Over the course of the year, she paid another R140,000, in tranches of R100,000 and R40 000, to developer Eric Malengret.
Andrew Feinstein
Former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein was a vocal critic of the governing party’s decision not to investigate the arms deal allegations. He resigned in 2001, after the ANC refused to launch an investigation into the matter.
Since then, he has become a leading expert in global arms dealing, which he exposes in his book “The Shadow World: Inside The Global Arms Trade“.
David Griesel
Griesel appeared as a state witness in Shaik’s trial. At the time, he was the assistant general manager of acquisition at the Armaments Corporation of SA (Armscor), an acquisition agent for the then-department of defence.
He blew the lid on the role of high-ranking Cabinet ministers in the deal, testifying that the list of preferred arms-deal bidders was ultimately authorised by Cabinet, as were the contracts. It was long contended that some Cabinet ministers and high-ranking defence department officials, such as chief of acquisitions Shamin “Chippy” Shaik, received millions in bribes and kickbacks from bidders.
Really not too sure about that moustache, David – but if you’re helping put JZ behind bars, you do whatever you want on that top lip.
Vivian Reddy
Reddy [below with Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse Zuma] is Zuma’s longtime friend. The Durban tycoon helped to fund the first phase of the former president’s Nkandla homestead.
The judge in the Shaik trial, Hilary Squires, also found that a R250,000 payment by French arms-deal bidder Thomson CSF (formerly Thales) to Zuma had passed through the bank account of Reddy’s Development Africa Trust en route to funding the Nkandla project.