Jacob Zuma's efforts to privately prosecute State advocate Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan resulted in rulings that eviscerated his Stalingrad litigation strategy. And, Maughan writes, those judgments have empowered the State to insist that he should finally face trial.
When former president Jacob Zuma first started challenging the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) arms deal corruption case against him, his litigation strategy had a clear logic to it.
Zuma's now late counsel Kemp J Kemp, SC – who infamously dubbed his client's state-funded legal campaign against the NPA as "Stalingrad" – began by repeatedly seeking to attack the prosecution's most powerful evidence against the then aspirant president.