Johnathan Paoli
THE High Court of Pietermaritzburg on Thursday ruled in favour of the enforcement of its judgement in terms of former president Jacob Zuma’s private prosecution against Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan.
The court declined to suspend its ruling of 7 June, which declared the private prosecution unlawful and set aside the matter, pending the final determination of Zuma’s application for leave to appeal.
Furthermore, an enforcement order was granted allotting the payment of costs, including the cost of the counsel of Downer and Maughan.
This follows on Zuma’s initiation of private prosecution proceedings against the pair after he accused Downer – the lead prosecutor in his arms deal corruption trial – of leaking his confidential medical information to Maughan in August 2021; claiming the “leak” was in breach of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act.
Donwer and Maughan refuted the prosecution on the basis that Zuma’s medical information was publicly available in court documents and did not include confidential details.
Justices Gregory Kruger, Jacqui Henriques and Thokozile Masipa ruled that the former president’s litigation was invalid and was an abuse of court process, followed by the Zuma legal team’s intention to appeal arguing that the high court’s judgment was suspended once an appeal was pending.
The former president’s private prosecution against President Cyril Ramaphosa was set aside by the Johannesburg High Court on 5 July.
Zuma launched his legal action in December last year, on the eve of the ANC’s national elective conference, accusing Ramaphosa of being “an accessory after the fact” regarding the “leak” of his medical information, basing his attempt to prosecute the current president on an accusation that Ramaphosa failed to act after he complained that Downer had behaved improperly.
The high court ruled at the time that both nolle prosequi certificates, one of which was originally issued in respect of Downer, did not apply to Ramaphosa.
The former president is expected to appeal the judgement.
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