Former president Jacob Zuma has refused to be examined by National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) appointed doctors because he is tired of his claims of ill-health being treated with distrust, his foundation says.

Earlier this month, and with the full agreement of Zuma’s advocate Dali Mpofu, KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg Judge Piet Koen ordered that the State "may grant a medical practitioner of its choice to examine Mr Zuma to assess his ability to stand trial for corruption and for that doctor to be a witness, if necessary".

But JG Zuma Foundation spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi has now accused the State of "second guessing" the medical report produced by the military doctors responsible for the former president’s care – as well as the care of all other heads of state – by seeking to have him examined by their own doctors.

He said, "All president Zuma says in all this is that because his name is involved, now all of a sudden somebody must think that now there’s some shenanigans."

Manyi told News24 that Zuma’s military doctors "had every right to be very aggrieved" by the NPA’s insistence that its own doctors must be allowed to examine Zuma. This, he suggested, amounted to one arm of the State disbelieving another.

"They are saying [to the military doctors]: we don’t believe you… your professional integrity means nothing," Manyi said. "What nonsense is this?"

Zuma was hospitalised earlier this month, while serving a 15-month jail term for defying a Constitutional Court ruling that he appear before the State Capture Inquiry. The apex court is expected to rule on his application for a rescission of that judgment in the coming days.

In the meantime, Zuma’s lawyers were scheduled to begin arguing his application for a "special plea", in which he contends that the entire NPA is too biased to try him for corruption and he should be acquitted of all the charges against him. That plea has now been put on hold – because of Zuma’s undisclosed medical issues.

While the State agreed to a previous postponement of Zuma’s trial following his hospitalisation, it has made it clear that it may oppose the former president seeking a longer postponement of his trial.

Advocate Wim Trengove, for the NPA, also argued that it would be "in the interests of justice" for the State to be able to have its own doctors examine Zuma. He further raised questions about contentions made by Zuma’s doctors in court papers, that he had required "extensive emergency procedures that have been delayed by 18 months".