Jacob Zuma loses bid to appeal R28.9 million legal fees repayment order in court

FORMER President Jacob Zuma lost his Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, bid to appeal the order that he has to pay back the R28.9 million bill for his private legal fees.

- ZELDA VENTER

Judge Anthony Millar yesterday turned down Zuma’s application for leave to appeal the payback judgment before a full court (three judges) or the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). Judge Millar said that he is not persuaded that another court would come to a different conclusion.

“To keep the doors of the court open indefinitely to a litigant who refuses to accept the judgment on a particular matter serves no legitimate purpose. All it does is serve to be a drain on scarce judicial resources and to strengthen the view that accountability can be deferred for as long as one has the means to do so,’ the judge commented.