Judgment reserved in Zuma's 'private prosecution' application for leave to appeal ruling

The Johannesburg high court on Wednesday reserved its judgment on former president Jacob Zuma’s application for leave to appeal.

Zuma is appealing the ruling that set aside his private prosecution of President Cyril Ramaphosa. 

In a matter the court delivered its judgement on in July, Zuma had sought to privately prosecute Ramaphosa as an “accessory after the fact” in relation to another private prosecution he was pursuing against prosecutor Billy Downer SC and journalist Karyn Maughan for an alleged breach of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act. 

TimesLIVE reported at the time that in that separate prosecution, he alleged Downer gave Maughan access to a document about his health status that was later disclosed in open court. Last month, that prosecution was set aside by the Pietermaritzburg high court. 

The accessory charge against Ramaphosa was because when Zuma’s lawyers wrote to the president asking him to investigate the conduct of NPA officials regarding the alleged leak, the president failed to act.

The court found the nolle prosequi certificates, upon which the prosecution was based, were vague and one of them, originally issued in respect of Downer, was out of time to have any application to Ramaphosa. They were “unlawful, invalid and unconstitutional and fall to be set aside”, said the judgment at the time. 

The judges found Zuma's allegation would not lead to a conviction because they were grounded on conduct that did not constitute a criminal offence. “The president's response to Zuma's request [that he investigate Downer's conduct] was perfectly lawful,” said the court.

Zuma's denial that he was not bringing the prosecution for an ulterior purpose was “so far-fetched that this court may not reasonably rely thereon”.

Zuma's legal team argued on Wednesday during the virtual court proceedings before judges Mahomed Ismail, Selby Baqwa and Lebogang Modiba that their purpose was to persuade the court that another court, a higher one, would have reasonably arrived at a different conclusion on the various matters outlined in the application for leave to appeal. 

"There are literally countless grounds of appeal which are set out in the application for leave to appeal," said Zuma's lawyer, advocate Dali Mpofu.

TimesLIVE