Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been ordered by the High Court in Pretoria to repay about $1.7 million in taxpayer funds used to cover his personal legal expenses \u2013 a ruling that could see his assets seized if he fails to comply within 60 days.<\/p>\n
Judge Anthony Millar issued the judgment on Wednesday, directing state lawyers to initiate a writ of execution for the attachment and sale of Zuma\u2019s movable and immovable property to satisfy the debt.<\/p>\n
The order includes Zuma\u2019s presidential pension benefits, which may be partially or fully garnished.<\/p>\n
The ruling stems from a long-running legal battle over Zuma\u2019s alleged use of nearly R29 million in state funds to defend himself in criminal proceedings and related litigation.<\/p>\n
The case was brought by the South African government, with support from opposition parties such as the Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters.<\/p>\n
They argued that Zuma, now leader of the uMkhonto weSizwe party, should personally bear the costs of defending charges brought against him in his individual capacity.<\/p>\n
The court\u2019s decision builds on a 2018 ruling that found the state\u2019s funding of Zuma\u2019s legal costs to be unlawful.<\/p>\n
Since then, efforts to recover the money have faced repeated delays, with Zuma maintaining that the legal support was justified during his presidency.<\/p>\n
The ruling adds to mounting legal pressure on the former president, who continues to face corruption-related charges stemming from his time in office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former South African President Jacob Zuma has been ordered by the High Court in Pretoria to repay about $1.7 million in taxpayer funds used to cover his personal legal expenses \u2013 a ruling that could see his assets seized if he fails to comply within 60 days. Judge Anthony Millar issued the judgment on Wednesday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"APA News","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,30],"tags":[174,3741,122],"class_list":["post-18323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-southern-africa","tag-jacob-zuma","tag-pretoria","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}