JUSTICE in South Africa will suffer if an appeal by former president Jacob Zuma against a court order is rendered ineffective while he appeals it.
Zuma will suffer no harm if the current court order – interdicting him from prosecuting prosecutor Billy Downer and Media24 journalist Karyn Maughan – remains in place, according to Advoctae Geoff Budlender.
Budlender, representing Downer, brought an application in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday, 28 July to ensure that the order stays effective while Zuma appeals against it.
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The advocate said Zuma has made it clear in his court papers that his private prosecution is about removing Downer as prosecutor in his arms deal corruption trial.
He said: “It’s a case of the accused attempting to retaliate and turn the tables by instituting a private prosecution against the person who is prosecuting him on behalf of the state. If this sort of conduct is permitted to continue, it will be an invitation to well-resourced persons to engage in the same conduct. The administration of justice will suffer in this case and other cases.”
In June, the High Court set aside the summons through which a private prosecution against Downer and Maughan was instituted by Zuma.
The judgment read: “The summons issued out of the KwaZulu-Natal division of the High Court Pietermaritzburg on 5 September 2022, … for the purpose of instituting a private prosecution against the applicants (Downer and Maughan) by the respondent (Zuma) is set aside.”
Downer and Maughan now want the court to give an order declaring the June judgment "operational and executable" pending Zuma’s application for leave to appeal.
The original matter stems from allegations that Downer illegally leaked Zuma’s confidential doctor’s letter to Maughan during the arms deal corruption trial.
Zuma’s lawyer, Advocate Dali Mpofu SC, said Downer and Maughan had failed to plead in their heads of arguments that Zuma’s appeal will fail at the Supreme Court of Appeal and therefore could not rely on it in court.
Mpofu said: 'We have gone out of their way ... to show the court that there are prospects of success for Zuma. We had no duty to do so. We could have just kept quiet.”
He denied that Zuma was using the private prosecution to halt his corruption trial.
