President Jacob Zuma should not be ordered to personally pay costs for Nkandla

President Jacob Zuma should not be ordered to personally pay costs for his "state capture" report interdict, his lawyer said.  

Zuma's lawyer Anthea Platt has filed papers in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria asking it not to order the president to pay for his own costs.

Platt argued that former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's investigation was aimed at the exercise of the president's duties as a member of government.

She said there was no evidence to suggest that the president violated the Executive Member's Ethics Act.

"The State attorney was obliged to perform work on behalf of the President...the order sought by the [opposition parties] involved in the interdict seeks to pierce the attorney client relationship which is sacred," read the court papers.

She said the State's attorney must recover its costs from the office of the president.

"We submit therefore that the president should not be mulcted with a costs order to be paid by him personally."

Report ‘procedurally flawed’

Last week Zuma withdrew his application to interdict the release of the Public Protector's report into "state capture".

"My instructions are to withdraw the application," Platt told a full bench of judges last week Tuesday.

On the same day Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo struck off the roll Co-operative Governance Minister Des Van Rooyen's application to interdict the report for lack of urgency.

The High Court also permitted opposition parties who had initially applied to oppose the president's application to join in the matter.

Zuma had maintained that he did not have sufficient time to respond to questions posed by Madonsela on his relationship with the Gupta family.

Platt told the court that the president had found Madonsela's report to be procedurally flawed as she did not afford him the opportunity to respond to questions and quiz witnesses before the finalisation of the report.