The Johannesburg High court has denied on Tuesday former President Jacob Zuma’s application for leave to appeal against the setting aside of his private prosecution of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
On the eve of the ANC’s 59th National Elective conference held in December last year, Zuma served the president with a summons to appear in court for a private prosecution.
The accusation involved Ramaphosa being an accessory after the fact to the crimes he previously attempted to privately prosecute state advocate Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan for, namely publicly disclosing details from his medical records without the permission of the National Director of Public Prosecutions.
Zuma’s case against Ramaphosa was set aside in July of this year, with the court finding both an abuse of the legal process, as well as an ulterior motive in an attempt to trigger the ruling party’s ‘step-aside’ rule in order to prevent Ramaphosa from running for re-election as party president.
However, the former president’s legal team expressed their intention to move for an application for leave to appeal the July ruling the next month.
This follows on the Petermaritzburg High Court ruling on Monday, which dismissed his application for leave to appeal its June 2023 ruling setting aside his private prosecution of Downer and Maughan.
The outcome of this case could prove significant for both Ramaphosa and Zuma, setting a precedent for how private prosecutions are handled in the South African legal system.
The Presidency has welcomed the judgement saying that it has always believed from the beginning that Zuma’s claim has no basis in law.
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