By: IOL and ANG Reporter
The landmark case where former president Jacob Zuma is privately prosecuting criminally accused alleged journalist Karyn Maughan and State prosecutor advocate Billy Downer, SC, has been postponed to next year.
After a break, the presiding judge returned and postponed the case to February 2, 2023.
Zuma, seemingly in high spirits, was in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, in KwaZulu-Natal sitting next to his counsel, advocate Dali Mpofu, SC. He has offered R500 000 to sustain the private prosecution.
In December, the court will hear applications brought by the accused, seeking to strike down the prosecution.
Last year, the former president opened a criminal case against Downer, alleging that the State’s lead prosecutor in Zuma’s long-running corruption trial, had unlawfully leaked his medical records including a doctor’s note to the journalist.
Zuma insists that the actions of Downer and Maughan were in contravention of the National Prosecuting Authority Act, but the NPA declined to prosecute.
Over the weekend, spokesperson for the JGZ Foundation, Mzwanele Manyi, confirmed that Zuma, who has been declared a “free man” after his parole on the contempt conviction expired last week, would physically attend the court proceedings.
“Zuma, a free man, will be in the Pietermaritzburg High Court tomorrow morning (Monday) for the private prosecution of accused number 1, Downer, and accused number 2, Maughan, who both (allegedly) violated section 41(6) of the NPA Act,” Manyi wrote on Twitter.
Earlier, News24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson said the private prosecution initiated by Jacob Zuma against their publication’s reporter, and the senior prosecutor was a bid to silence the journalist.
However, political commentator Clyde Ramalaine disagreed with Basson. He said: “Adriaan Basson must please not tell us the media is on trial. Karyn Maughan may be a journalist but has plied her trade as factional political actor that appears paid to target Jacob Zuma.”
“So while the courts may rule as we know they would in the favour of this political actor parading as a journalist seeing white privilege in the accused box in a South African court says something.”
Ramalaine said Billy Downer “is equally compromised and should recuse himself if justice is the aim. If the state’s case against Zuma is so solid why must Downer be the prosecutor and no one else?”
