Africa-Press – South-Africa. The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg is on Wednesday expected to hand down judgment in the applications by News24’s legal writer Karyn Maughan and prosecutor Billy Downer to set aside the private prosecution brought by former president Jacob Zuma.
It comes after Zuma accused Downer of leaking confidential medical information to Maughan in breach of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act. Both have brought applications to have the summons they were served reviewed and set aside.
In asking the court to set the matter aside, Maughan stated that Zuma did not obtain a nolle prosequi certificate against her. The certificate is key to Zuma being procedurally allowed to privately prosecute.
In March, the hearing ended abruptly as Zuma’s advocate, Dali Mpofu, made long-winded submissions and went at least an hour over his allocated time toward the end of the day.
Maughan’s counsel, advocate Steven Budlender, argued in court that Zuma brought the charges against Maughan because of the former president’s “extraordinary animosity toward her”.
Budlender told the court that Zuma did not like the way in which Maughan had been covering the former president’s arms deal corruption case – where Zuma had been accused of taking bribes from French arms company Thales during the country’s arms procurement programme in the 1990s.
Regarding the allegations that the former president’s medical information was released, Budlender argued that the medical report was a public document which contained “nothing confidential”.
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The letter, written by Zuma’s military doctor when imprisoned in the Estcourt Correctional Centre for defying a Constitutional Court order to testify at the Zondo Commission, stated that he needed to be transported to Pretoria for urgent medical surgery after suffering a “traumatic injury” a year earlier.
The letter was attached to both the State and Zuma’s court papers to be heard in court on 10 August 2021, for a postponement.
No details of Zuma’s condition were published.
Documents filed with the court are deemed public records unless a judge instructs otherwise. There was no instruction in this instance.
The Helen Suzman Foundation successfully applied to be part of the case. During the last court hearing, the foundation told the court that Zuma was prosecuting Downer and Maughan as part of an “ulterior purpose”.
Advocate Kate Hofmeyr, for the foundation, said Zuma was abusing the private prosecution purpose.
Advocate Geoff Budlender, representing Downer, argued that Zuma’s application was an abuse of process and an attempt to stop Downer from doing his job in the arms deal case.
Mpofu told the full Bench of judges that by leaking Zuma’s medical information to Maughan, Downer and his NPA team representing the State in Zuma’s arms deal corruption case had committed a “serious” offence.
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