Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has dismissed with costs former president Jacob Zuma’s four attempted challenges to his corruption prosecution, just days before he is due back in court for his corruption trial.
The SCA found that Zuma’s petitions had “no reasonable prospects of success in an appeal and there is no other compelling reason why an appeal should be heard”.
Zuma had asked the appeal court for the right to challenge Judge Piet Koen’s dismissal of his “special plea” application in which he sought the removal of prosecutor Billy Downer because of alleged bias and misconduct – as well as his case that witnesses should be called to testify about the abuses he claims to have suffered at the hands of the state (as part of that “special plea” application).
While Zuma also applied to lead further evidence in his appeal, largely to do with his complaints that Downer had “leaked” publicly available court documents to News24, Koen had found that none of this evidence related to whether Downer had the “title” to prosecute him – the key issue that would need to be decided in an appeal.
The State elected to not file any papers detailing its opposition to Zuma’s attempts to appeal Koen’s rulings against him.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga told News24 that the state welcomed the SCA’s ruling, which comes as it prepares to resist Zuma’s application for a further postponement of the case against him.
“We welcome the judgment and will now focus on ensuring that trial resumes on 11 April 2022. We have always maintained that there is no prospect of success on appeal as issues raised have been pronounced upon by the same SCA, he said.
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
