NATIONAL NEWS - Lawyers on Monday poked holes into former president Jacob Zuma’s private prosecution of state advocate Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan.
They said the charges against the two were brought for an “ulterior purpose” and designed to prevent a “reporter from doing her job”.
Downer lodged an application to have the private prosecution stopped.
Addressing a full bench at the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday, Maughan’s lawyer, Advocate Steven Budlender, said Zuma brought the charges against his client because of the former president’s “extraordinary animosity towards her”.
Zuma, Budlender said, did not like the way in which Maughan has been covering the former president’s arms deal corruption case – where Zuma has been accused of taking bribes from French arms company Thales, during the country’s arms procurement programme in the 90s.
Zuma accuses Downer
In his private prosecution, Zuma is accusing Downer of leaking the former president’s medical report to Maughan.
This, Budlender said, was despite the fact that the medical report was a public document which contained “nothing confidential”.
Budlender told the court that it was “astonishing” that Zuma was intent on dragging Maughan to a criminal court despite the fact that it was not the journalist who leaked the medical report.
This is an attempt to Intimidate and harass Ms Maughan. It’s an attempt to prevent her from doing her job.
Advocate Kate Hofmeyr, who is representing the Helen Suzman Foundation which successfully applied to be part of the case, told the court that Zuma was prosecuting Downer and Maughan for an “ulterior purpose”.
Zuma, Hofmeyr said, was abusing the private prosecution purpose to achieve what the process was not established for.
To demonstrate that Zuma had an ulterior motive, Hofmeyr used the witness list which Zuma submitted to the court as part of his private prosecution.
The Witness list
According to the list, witnesses Zuma intends to call include President Cyril Ramaphosa, Justice Minister, Ronald Lamola and State Security Director General, Thembisile Majola.
How are these witnesses linked to this case? What’s the relevance.
Zuma, Hofmeyr said, was merely ticking the boxes just to ensure that Downer and Maughan were put on trial.
There aren’t even any statements in the docket from these witnesses.
Earlier on Monday, Downer’s lawyer, Advocate Geoff Budlender, SC told the court Zuma’s case against the senior prosecutor was “meritless”.
Zuma, Budlender. SC said, has failed to demonstrate that he has a winnable case against Downer.
The case against Downer
The case against Downer, Budlender said, was “meritless” and amounted to an “abuse of process”
Zuma, who lost a series of court cases where he has been demanding the removal of Downer from the arms deal case, insists that his rights were on a number of occasions violated by Downer and other National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) officials involved in his arms deal case.
However, Budlender told the court that several courts have found that none of Zuma’s rights were violated since the start of the arms deal case about two decades ago.
Like in other applications made by Zuma before, Budlender said, the criminal charges the former president has brought against Downer were meritless.
Instead of demonstrating to the court that he had a winnable case against Downer, Budlender said, Zuma wants the court to “just” go ahead with the case against Downer .
Zuma, Budlender said, has failed to prove that he suffered an injury as a result of the publication of the medical report.
The case will continue on Wednesday.
