The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) is relieved that taxpayers do not have to pay for President Jacob Zuma's failed attempts to stop the Public Protector’s State of Capture report and the inquiry she recommended.

“For too long the President has used public funds to fight his personal battles‚” Ben Theron‚ Outa’s Chief Operating Officer‚ said in a statement on Wednesday.

“. . . Taxpayers’ money should be used to provide services to the South African public and not to enrich the Zuma power elite.”

Today’s two judgments by Judge Dunstan Mlambo are a significant step in opposing and reversing state capture‚ said Theron. "Not only must the President personally pay the costs of two legal actions arising from his attempts to frustrate the report and the commission of inquiry it recommended‚ but the long-awaited‚ independent inquiry into state capture must now be appointed."

"Today’s landmark decisions follow Friday’s judgment‚ also by Judge Mlambo‚which also went against the President‚ and which referred to the President’s delaying tactics to frustrate any case against him. That matter cost both Shaun Abrahams and his predecessor Mxolisi Nxasana the job of National Director of Public Prosecutions and blocked Zuma from appointing the replacement as he is conflicted due to the looming criminal charges against him.

"Outa hopes that these three judgments will now encourage genuine action to overcome state capture‚ with an independent full judicial inquiry into state capture and the appointment of a chief prosecutor who will clean up the National Prosecuting Authority and get the much-delayed state capture cases under way."

Theron added: "These judgments are about . . . ensuring that the President is equal before the law."