FORMER President Jacob Zuma’s attempt to remove the prosecutor from his upcoming corruption trial has been dismissed.
The dismissal came on Wednesday by Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Piet Koen, on the grounds that Zuma’s attempt to remove the prosecutor “lacks reasonable prospects of success”.
Zuma’s lawyers had been appealing an earlier ruling rejecting his attempt to have lead prosecutor Billy Downer taken off the corruption case.
“The application for leave to appeal and all related applications … are all dismissed,” Koen said in court.
“The criminal trial shall proceed.”
Zuma, overthrown as South Africa’s president in 2018 by his party, the ruling African National Congress, amid wide-ranging allegations of corruption during his nine-year term, had accused Downer of bias.
His lawyers accused Downer of leaking confidential case information to the media and being a witness in a separate case against the former leader by the opposition party, the Democratic Alliance.
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