{"id":62992,"date":"2024-03-20T16:27:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T16:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-fails-to-remove-downer-but-says-he-will-appeal-again"},"modified":"2024-03-20T17:24:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T17:24:20","slug":"zuma-fails-to-remove-downer-but-says-he-will-appeal-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-fails-to-remove-downer-but-says-he-will-appeal-again","title":{"rendered":"Zuma fails to remove Downer but says he will appeal again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>\u0631Former president Jacob Zuma has again failed to remove lead prosecutor advocate Billy Downer from his arms-deal corruption case.<\/p>\n

But more appeals are in the offing and the matter has still not been set down for trial for the hearing of evidence.Pietermaritzburg high court judge Nkosinathi Chili on Wednesday dismissed Zuma’s application, saying he was not persuaded Zuma had succeeded in establishing retention of Downer could infringe on his right to a fair trial.<\/p>\n

However, he would only give his reasons for the ruling \u201cat the end of the trial\u201d.<\/p>\n

This flummoxed Zuma\u2019s counsel advocate Dali Mpofu, who indicated he wanted the reasons in order to take the ruling on appeal.<\/p>\n

However, later in his submissions, he said he had consulted Zuma \u2014 who had been excused from attending Wednesday\u2019s proceedings \u2014 the day before and he had instructions to appeal the ruling if it did not go his way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are to bring an application for leave to appeal. What we did not expect was the reasons are not given now. It doesn\u2019t change much of the substance of what we do next,\u201d he said, suggesting the trial be \u201cadjourned indefinitely\u201d for \u201ccase management\u201d to determine the way forward, and the availability of counsel.<\/p>\n

This suggestion was made after Downer asked that the judge set trial dates immediately.He said the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) wanted to get on with the trial which had been delayed for six years by Zuma\u2019s various applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to start leading evidence. We are in March 2024 with a trial which has been subject to abuse and delays for six years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an unusual matter and just as various courts make various rulings the state argues strongly this court should take the view that this is a matter of great importance and in the pecking order of cases this should be accorded the highest priority and if other cases have to be moved, then this court should consider such an order,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mpofu, in usual dramatic style, said he was \u201castounded\u201d and \u201ctrying to contain himself\u201d to hear Downer had spoken to the legal representatives of Thales (accused number two) about availability of counsel when he had not been afforded the same courtesy.Referring to a comment by Downer that no-one, not the state, not the court, nor the public, wanted further delays in the matter, Mpofu said: \u201cThere is the matter of an accused who is not here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the legal team could not be forced to commit to anything in the absence of Zuma.<\/p>\n

On the suggestion of Chili, both sides agreed to postpone the trial until a \u201cpretrial conference\u201d on May 17.<\/p>\n

Zuma\u2019s attempt to remove Downer, based on bias or the apprehension of bias, was in essence a second bite of the same cherry after a similar application in terms of a \u201cspecial plea\u201d was dismissed by now recused trial judge Piet Koen.<\/p>\n

His appeals against that were dismissed by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) and the Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n

The point of difference in the matter before Chili was the subsequent launching of a private prosecution against Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan for allegedly contravening the NPA Act, the allegation being that Downer leaked a document containing Zuma\u2019s private medical records to Maughan.<\/p>\n

He argued he could not be prosecuted by someone he was prosecuting.<\/p>\n

However, the private prosecution has been set aside as a \u201cmeritless abuse of process\u201d, a finding later endorsed by the SCA which labelled it \u201cStalingrad tactics\u201d.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. \u0631Former president Jacob Zuma has again failed to remove lead prosecutor advocate Billy Downer from his arms-deal corruption case. But more appeals are in the offing and the matter has still not been set down for trial for the hearing of evidence.Pietermaritzburg high court judge Nkosinathi Chili on Wednesday dismissed Zuma’s application, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":62991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-62992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nZuma fails to remove Downer but says he will appeal again - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u0631Former president Jacob Zuma has again failed to remove lead prosecutor advocate Billy Downer from his arms-deal corrupt ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-fails-to-remove-downer-but-says-he-will-appeal-again\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zuma fails to remove Downer but says he will appeal again\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u0631Former president Jacob Zuma has again failed to remove lead prosecutor advocate Billy Downer from his arms-deal corrupt ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-fails-to-remove-downer-but-says-he-will-appeal-again\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-20T16:27:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-20T17:24:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/03\/sm_1710941870.975917.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"530\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-fails-to-remove-downer-but-says-he-will-appeal-again#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-fails-to-remove-downer-but-says-he-will-appeal-again\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Zuma fails to remove Downer but says he will appeal again\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-20T16:27:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-20T17:24:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-fails-to-remove-downer-but-says-he-will-appeal-again\"},\"wordCount\":614,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-fails-to-remove-downer-but-says-he-will-appeal-again#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/03\/sm_1710941870.975917.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-fails-to-remove-downer-but-says-he-will-appeal-again#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-fails-to-remove-downer-but-says-he-will-appeal-again\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/zuma-fails-to-remove-downer-but-says-he-will-appeal-again\",\"name\":\"Zuma fails to remove Downer but says he will appeal again - 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