By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
State has asked the Pietermaritzburg High Court to reject former President Jacob Zuma’s application to remove Advocate Billy Downer as lead prosecutor in the arms deal corruption trial.
Zuma and French arms manufacturer Thales were back in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday for his corruption trial.
State advocate Geoff Budlender said, “If Billy Downer was to be removed as lead prosecutor in Zuma’s arms-deal related trial, it would be the beginning of a “Stalingrad festival” with complaints against every replacement prosecutor.
He was arguing against a bid by Zuma, before trial judge Nkosinathi Chili, for the recusal or removal of Downer, whom Zuma accuses of prosecutorial bias, which means he won’t get a fair trial.
Budlender said the removal/recusal application was “arguably in itself an abuse” and should be dismissed.
Advocate Dali Mpofu, acting for Zuma told the court that one of Zuma’s complaints is that the state “failed to remove” Downer “upon our demand”.
He argued that Zuma will not get a fair hearing if Downer prosecutes him.
“When we wrote them a letter and we said to them, please remove this prosecutor… That decision itself should have been informed by the highest ethical standards and we will pursue it with respect that the decision that was taken was not informed by the highest ethical standards.
“He (Downer) cannot be expected to be a prosecutor and tomorrow to be the accused, in the same matter, same courtroom before the same judge nogal,” Mpofu said.
Mpofu added the state must take a “leaf” from what Judge Piet Koen did.
In January this year Koen, who was presiding over Zuma’s trial, announced his decision to recuse himself from the matter for the “strong views” he made when he dismissed Zuma’s bid to get arms deal prosecutor, Downer, removed from the corruption and fraud trial.
“All Judge Koen was saying was that what will the public say if I have made remarks which go this way and the following day I am supposed to be neutral and therefore I am moving out from an ethical point of view,” Mpofu argued.
Since then Zuma has laid criminal charges against Downer and then initiated a private prosecution against him and journalist Karyn Maughan involving an alleged leak of a document, penned by his doctor when he was in hospital in Pretoria (while incarcerated for contempt of court), alleging they contravened the NPA Act which carries a penalty of 15 years in prison or a fine of R100,000 — or both.
Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on Friday dismissed Zuma’s latest private prosecution appeal against Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan. Zuma had sought to overturn a high court judgment that effectively prevented Downer and Maughan from having to face prosecution.
Zuma is challenging the findings the SCA that his private prosecution against Downer and Maughan was an abuse and should be set aside.
It emerged at Tuesday’s hearing that Zuma has now appealed that ruling to the Constitutional Court.
Mpofu told the court the former president filed an application to appeal the enforcement of the ruling that invalidated the private prosecution as an abuse.
“What has since happened is that as of 25 October, the application for leave to appeal in that matter was served. And I’ve just learnt now that I think, because of the time, the stamp of the Constitutional Court says the 26th.”
But Budlender said an accused had no right to dictate to the NPA who would prosecute him or her. “The main trigger of this application is the private prosecution, but court after court have labelled that as an abuse — a hopeless case. And it is not open to him to dispute this,” he said.
Budlender said judge Chili could not ignore the previous rulings — and that he was bound by them. He also said the SCA ruling, while being appealed, was still valid until another court set it aside.
“Zuma wants to make a fool of the law and the courts. If there ever was a case of clean hands/dirty hands, it is this.”
Judge Chili reserved judgment but before he adjourned court, he addressed Downer and Maughan who are due to appear before him in the private prosecution on November 1.
Zuma and French arms manufacturer Thales are facing multiple charges, including fraud‚ corruption, money laundering, and racketeering, in connection with the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal procurement concluded in the late 1990s while he was vice president.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of ENCA.