Zuma insists on Downer and Maughan’s presence in court

Former president Jacob Zuma has insisted that state prosecutor Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan appear in court in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday in his private prosecution of them.

This in spite of eight judges in KwaZulu-Natal and at the Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that the prosecution is an abuse and baseless, and that abuse should not be allowed to continue, in spite of his appeals to higher courts which, ordinarily, suspend rulings.

After Zuma’s latest defeat in the SCA, Downer and Maughan’s lawyers wrote to KwaZulu-Natal judge president Thoba Poyo-Dlwati asking her to intervene administratively and rule that they don’t have to appear in court, before judge Nkosinathi Chili, on November 1.

But Zuma’s lawyers opposed this saying an appeal against the SCA ruling was now pending in the Constitutional Court. 

They said it would be “improper” for criminal proceedings pending before a specific judge to be dealt with outside the courtroom and “all accused persons ought to be treated the same”.

Last week, judge Chili — who is also the trial judge in Zuma’s arms-deal related trial — heard another application brought by Zuma for Downer’s removal as lead prosecutor in the case.

After hearing the submissions, judge Chili asked the parties if some arrangement could be made before November 1, to have the private prosecution removed from the roll.

However, Zuma’s advocate Dali Mpofu said he needed to take instructions about whether his client wanted to “extend the olive branch”. 

That olive branch was not extended. 

Sources told TimesLIVE that Downer and Maughan had to appear on Wednesday. Zuma, as the private prosecutor, would also have to be present.

Zuma alleges that Downer and Maughan contravened sections of the NPA Act, in that Downer leaked a “confidential” document which contained his personal medical information to the journalist.

In a statement on Tuesday, JG Zuma Foundation spokesperson, Mzwanele Manyi confirmed that Downer and Maughan were “warned to appear'' in court at their last court appearance. 

Former trial judge Piet Koen and eight other judges hearing various applications, have noted that the document was not confidential — it had been put before the court by Zuma’s own lawyers in an application for a postponement of the criminal trial — and it did not contain any confidential information.

TimesLIVE