FORMER president Jacob Zuma will not rest until prosecutor advocate Billy Downer is removed from his corruption case.
For this reason, Zuma (79) has taken his fight to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
The Jacob Zuma Foundation confirmed that his legal team lodged the petition at the SCA against “the dismissal of the plea to remove Downer in the criminal trial, refusal of the appeal and application to introduce new evidence”.
This came after Pietermaritzburg High Court judge Piet Koen ruled last year that Downer would continue prosecuting Zuma.
He is facing 16 charges relating to 783 payments he allegedly received from former financial adviser Schabir Shaik, and a R500 000 yearly bribe the state alleged Shaik facilitated for him from French arms company, Thales.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
Foundation spokesman Mzwanele Manyi said: “The petition against Koen’s decision to dismiss the special plea for the removal of Downer as prosecutor, as well as the application for leave to appeal and lead new evidence, were lodged with the Supreme Court of Appeal.”
He said the ruling was full of errors and irregularities.
Zuma had claimed Downer would not be fair to Zuma as he allegedly leaked important information about him, including his medical records, to a journalist.
“Zuma is confident that the petition raises good grounds and interesting constitutional issues which will be answered by the SCA when it sits,” said Manyi.
