Zuma’s appeal rejected and he has to repay R28.9m in legal fees

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 turned down Zuma’s application for leave to appeal the payback judgment before a full court {three judges} or the Supreme Court of Appeal yesterday. Judge Millar said that he was 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 so long as one has the means to do so,’ the judge commented.

He added that it was destructive of the notion that all are equal before the law and confirmatory of the view that “there is far too much law for those who can afford it and far too little for those who cannot”.