Former president Jacob Zuma. (Darren Stewart/Gallo images)
- Jacob Zuma faces 18 charges of corruption, racketeering, fraud and tax evasion, linked to his allegedly corrupt relationship with Schabir Shaik.
- While the State’s case against Zuma was declared trial-ready three years ago, it has been delayed by efforts to remove prosecutor Billy Downer.
- Judge Nkosinathi Chili rejected Zuma’s latest bid to force Downer’s removal and said he would give reasons for that decision at the end of the trial. He has now backtracked on that stance and provided those reasons.
Jacob Zuma’s lawyers have unsuccessfully protested over his corruption trial date remaining set for April 2025, as the State confirmed it would fight for the former president to finally go on trial – regardless of his latest appeal to force prosecutor Billy Downer’s removal.
On Wednesday, Zuma’s advocate Nqaba Buthelezi said his client and his representatives took “exception” to the trial dates remaining blocked out for April next year while the former president sought leave to appeal KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg Judge Nkosinathi Chili’s decision that it was not in the interests of justice for Downer to be forced to step down.
Buthelezi described the State’s proposal that the trial continue regardless of Zuma’s appeal efforts as absurd.
“What purpose is served that we can then enroll a matter that… we can anticipate will still be the object of an appeal come next year?” he asked Chili, before adding that Zuma and his team took “exception” to their continuous appeals being described as a “Stalingrad strategy” by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
“We are exercising our rights,” he said, without acknowledging that multiple courts have now found that Zuma’s efforts to privately prosecute Downer and this writer over the sharing of court papers were an abusive manifestation of his “Stalingrad strategy” of using futile litigation to avoid facing trial for alleged arms deal-linked corruption.
READ | Judge opens door for Zuma trial delays, despite damning ‘Stalingrad’ findings against him
Buthelezi made it clear that, should Zuma fail in his second campaign to force Downer’s removal after trying and failing to privately prosecute him, he would again seek to petition the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) and embark on the same appeal litigation strategy that has resulted in his trial being repeatedly delayed since it was reinstated in 2018. He suggested the trial itself should be postponed indefinitely.
Chili did not agree to that and instead scheduled Zuma’s appeal hearing for 6 February, which is when the judge will return from acting as a judge on the SCA.
Chili had earlier explained why he had dismissed Zuma’s second bid to force Downer’s removal, which was based largely on his failed efforts to privately prosecute the career State advocate over false accusations that he had “leaked” his (Zuma’s) confidential medical information to this writer.
He pointed out that Zuma’s various accusations against Downer had been found to be baseless and abusive by multiple courts – and referred to the damning findings made about the former president’s private prosecution by the SCA.
Writing on behalf of a full bench of that court, 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”.
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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 over the sharing of court documents was “patently a hopeless case” and “obviously unsustainable”.
He added that Zuma “has not made out any possible basis on which Mr Downer might be convicted, even on [his] own version of the facts”.
After referencing that judgment, and previous Zuma trial Judge Piet Koen’s dismissal of Zuma’s “special plea” application for Downer’s removal, Chili said he was “unable to conclude that Mr Zuma’s right to a fair trial would be violated if Mr Downer remained the prosecutor in the matter”.
Given the weight of rulings that have dismissed Zuma’s various accusations against Downer, it is highly unlikely that any court will disagree with that assessment. The real question lies in whether Zuma’s appeal against Chili’s ruling will, again, result in his trial being delayed.
The NPA says it will “fight” to make sure that does not happen.
READ MORE | Zuma heads to ConCourt in fight to privately prosecute Ramaphosa
“We will fight it because we’ve got judgments in our favour, we’ve got findings made that are relevant in our argument that we will be mounting in our argument against [Zuma’s] leave to appeal application,” NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga told News24.
Asked what the implications for rule of law would be if Zuma was allowed to again use futile appeals to delay the start of his trial, Mhaga responded:
“The implications have been dire for the rule of law because South Africans have been waiting and they are keen to see all these allegations being ventilated in a proper forum, which is a court of law. We have been waiting for close to 20 years for this matter to finally proceed. The accused have pleaded to the charges. All that is left is for the state to present evidence.”
For the case to be delayed again would be “unfair”, “draining” and “exhausting”, he said.
