By Duncan Guy
Tuesday, November 07, 2006 - Citizen Online
BLOEMFONTEIN - Bloemfontein might have been spared the crowds singing "Awulethu Mshini Wam" when it hosted a court ruling with potential implications against former Deputy President Jacob Zuma on Monday.
But there was a bomb scare in the Supreme Court of Appeal.
It happened shortly after Judge Craig Howie rejected an appeal against corruption and fraud convictions by Zuma's friend and advisor Schabir Shaik.
In a courtroom packed with media, local traditional healer and medical doctor "GTS" Tys cut a lone figure, his hair styled in beaded dreadlocks.
"Zuma will be following Shaik," he said after judgement had been delivered.
"And Mbeki will follow him too'".
Tys, known to court staff as "the sangoma", lashed out at the "morally bankrupt" African National Congress.
"The constitution that they hurriedly adopted is working against them.
"They were not ready to govern".
Inside the courtroom the media had been allowed to broadcast the ruling live, this privilege having been denied at earlier hearings of the appeal.
However, a technical hitch brought a live moment of a radio broadcast on the air straight into the courtroom.
Judge Howie briefly adjourned. A radio reporter apologised profusely. The hearing resumed and the brief show went on in an atmosphere of legal formality.
Behind the scenes in the courts clerical offices senior registrar's clerk Henry Snyman, who has memories of famous appeals in his 12 years service, said the application by the media to broadcast the Shaik case made it memorable.
Usually he and his colleagues in the high ceilinged offices with red carpets remembered cases best by the workloads they presented.
Judge Howie's ruling meant that Shaik must now go to jail for 15 years.
It will also see the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) thinking hard about its next move with regard to Zuma.
The Durban High Court had remarked earlier in the saga that Zuma and Shaik had enjoyed a "generally corrupt" relationship.
On leaving the courtroom, reporters from the Bloemfontein Sesotho language station, Radio Lesedi, grabbed NPA spokesman Makhosini Nkosi for his first interview after the ruling.
"Sorry, I'll talk in English," he told them putting on headphones at a makeshift studio.
"I'll only speak in Sesotho (about this) to my mother," he said, later explaining that talking about legal points accurately could have been difficult in the vernacular.
While Monday in Bloemfontein was largely a formal affair, if it leads to the resumption of Zuma's trial, the quiet streets may well hear the lyrics of "Awulethu Mshini Wam" sometime in the future. - Sapa.