By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Constitutional Court has dismissed former president Jacob Zuma’s bid to force former head of the Supreme Court of Appeal Mandisa Maya to reconsider his bid to remove prosecutor Billy Downer from his corruption trial.
Zuma had asked the court to grant him leave to appeal Judge Piet Koen’s dismissal, in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg, of his special plea to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Koen dismissed the former president’s special plea application to remove Downer from prosecuting his corruption case as Zuma sought to challenge Downer’s title to prosecute on the basis that he was biased.
While stating that it had not decided whether Maya’s decision was, in fact, appealable, the country’s highest court said it had “concluded that it would not be in the interests of justice to grant leave to appeal” Maya’s decision, given that Zuma would be entitled to seek leave to appeal Koen’s decision “to this court”.
Zuma’s foundation tweeted on Thursday that the ruling confirmed the former president “can exercise his right to appeal the adverse decision of the High Court to the Constitutional Court”, but did not confirm that he would, in fact, do so.
Zuma is due back in court on 17 October.
The former president has launched private prosecution proceedings against Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan.
The duo are challenging it as an abuse of court processes and the matter is expected to be heard on 10 October 2022.