Jean-Jacques Cornish

Jacob Zuma files court application to quash corruption charges he is facing

Former President Jacob Zuma has filed a court application to have quashed 16 charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering he’s facing.

The alleged crimes relate to an arms procurement deal in the 1990s before he became president.

The French arms company Thales has also filed papers  seeking to have dropped the  charges its is  facing for allegedly paying bribes to Zuma.

The National Prosecution authority’s confirmed that applications have been received from former President Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thales.

Zuma’s due to appear in the High Court in east coast city of Durban on November 30 for a hearing in this case.

He has maintained his innocence throughout.

The alleged offenses occurred while he was provincial economy minister in KwaZulu/Natal and later Deputy President

Thales submits that the decision in 2009 to drop the charges was neither set aside nor challenged by the State.

By reintroducing the charges now, the prosecution is not following its own protocols and the unreasonable delay in dealing with the matter makes a fair trial impossible.

A separate judicial inquiry into alleged state corruption while Zuma was president is currently hearing evidence in `Johannesburg

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Jean-Jacques Cornish is a journalist and broadcaster who has been involved in the media all his adult life.

Starting as a reporter on his hometown newspaper, he moved briefly to then Rhodesia before returning to South Africa to become a parliamentary correspondent with the South African Press Association. He was sent to London as Sapa’s London editor and also served as special correspondent to the United Nations. He joined the then Argus group in London as political correspondent.

Returning to South Africa after 12 years abroad, he was assistant editor on the Pretoria News for a decade before becoming editor of the Star and SA Times for five years.

Since 1999 he’s been an independent journalist writing and broadcasting – mainly about Africa – for Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape
Talk, Radio France International, PressTV, Radio Live New Zealand, Business Day, Mail & Guardian, the BBC, Agence France Press,
Business in Africa, Leadership, India Today, the South African Institute for International Affairs and the Institute for Security Studies.

He has hosted current affairs talk shows on Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk. He appears as an African affairs pundit on SABC Africa and CNBC Africa.
He lectured in contemporary studies to journalism students at the Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Pretoria.

He speaks on African affairs to corporate and other audiences.
He has been officially invited as a journalist to more than 30 countries. He was the winner of the 2007 SADC award for radio journalism.

He’s been a member of the EISA team observing elections in Somaliland, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Tunsiai.

In October 2009 he headed a group of 39 African journalists to the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Peoples’ Republic of China.

In January 2010 he joined a rescue and paramedical team to earthquake struck Haiti.

He is immediate past president of the Alliance Francaise of Pretoria.

Jean-Jacques is a director of Giant Media. The company was given access to Nelson Mandela in his retirement years until 2009.
He is co-producer of the hour-long documentary Mandela at 90 that was broadcast on BBC in January 2009.