Court to deliberate Zuma appeal in Downer, Maughan private prosecution case

Former President Jacob Zuma is expected back in court on Monday to appeal the Pietermaritzburg High Court’s order that declared its setting aside of his private prosecution of state advocate Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan as immediately enforceable.

The Jacob Zuma Foundation spokesperson, Mzwanele Manyi, said Zuma will attend court proceedings.

Private prosecution

In August, the court declined to suspend its 7 June ruling, which declared the former president’s private prosecution unlawful and set aside the matter, pending the final determination of the former president’s application for leave to appeal.

Downer and Maughan lodged an enforcement appeal, asking the high court for an order to block Zuma from further pursuing private prosecution against them while he appealed the matter.

But the former president took the enforcement order on appeal.

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Zuma called for a dismissal of the enforcement order, arguing that the urgency of the enforcement application was contrived and amounted to an abuse of court processes.

The former president’s lawyer said no exceptional circumstances for the order had been established on a balance of probabilities adding that the underlying decision for the order was “inherently deficient and riddled with irregularities”.

Zuma and French arms company Thales face several charges including fraud, racketeering and money laundering linked to the multibillion-rand arms deal in 1999.

Zuma vs Ramaphosa

Meanwhile, the Johannesburg High Court last month reserved its judgment on Zuma’s application for leave to appeal a judgment which set aside his private prosecution of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

This after the court in July set aside Zuma’s private prosecution of Ramaphosa, with the judges declaring the application unlawful and unconstitutional.

During court proceedings, Zuma’s legal team argued that Ramaphosa’s political career was “the last thing on his mind” when he instituted the private prosecution and that the timing was coincidental.

Zuma accused Ramaphosa of being an “accessory after the fact” in a criminal offence involving Downer.

He accused Downer, who is the lead prosecutor in his arms deal corruption trial, of violating the National Prosecuting Authority Act by allegedly leaking his confidential medical information to Maughan in August 2021.

The matter has been postponed to December for a ruling.

ALSO READ: ‘Ramaphosa’s political career last thing on Zuma’s mind’ – Court told