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- Former president Jacob Zuma instituted a private prosecution against his corruption prosecutor Billy Downer and this writer for alleged violations of the NPA Act linked to the sharing of court papers.
- That private prosecution was dismissed as an "abuse" by a full bench of the Kwazulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg, which later granted an order enforcing that ruling. Zuma has so far failed to challenge these decisions.
- Zuma nonetheless again sought Downer’s removal as his prosecutor in October last year.
The Kwazulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg will rule on former president Jacob Zuma’s latest bid to force the removal of his arms deal corruption prosecutor Billy Downer on 20 March, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has confirmed.
Zuma has accused Downer of prosecutorial bias and is adamant he won’t get a fair trial if the seasoned state advocate, who successfully proved that the then-deputy president’s former financial advisor Schabir Shaik was guilty of corruption, leads the State’s case against him.
In argument before Judge Nkosimathi Chili in October, the State argued that Zuma’s most recent attempt to force Downer from the case was already dead in the water, because the pillars of the former president’s case "have been repeatedly and emphatically dismissed" in six different court rulings.
"These emphatic and repeated dismissals of Mr Zuma’s pillars are fatal to his current attempt to resurrect them to avoid his day in court," the NPA argued.
In a ruling that was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), a High Court full bench also found that Zuma’s failed efforts to privately prosecute Downer and this writer for alleged breaches of the NPA Act (for the sharing of publicly available court documents) was a continuation of his so-called "Stalingrad" campaign to avoid ever facing trial through constant challenges to the case against him.
The full bench granted an order that would enforce its ruling as Zuma attempted to appeal it, in a judgment that was upheld, unanimously, by the Supreme Court of Appeal and later by the Constitutional Court.
Writing on behalf of a full bench of the SCA, Judge Nathan Ponnan said the facts demonstrated "that the private prosecution of Mr Downer is an abuse of the process of the court" because it was "instituted as a further step in a sustained attempt by Mr Zuma to obstruct, delay and prevent his criminal trial" and "to have Mr Downer removed as the prosecutor in Mr Zuma’s trial".
This "ulterior purpose" rendered the private prosecution unlawful, he said – before adding that the charges that Zuma had sought to pursue against Downer and this writer were "patently a hopeless case" and "obviously unsustainable".
Against this backdrop, the NPA’s advocate Geoff Budlender SC said a ruling that enabled Zuma to force Downer’s removal would unleash a "Stalingrad festival" of complaints against any prosecutor who replaced him.
