By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former president Jacob Zuma’s private prosecution of News24 journalist Karyn Maughan and the lead prosecutor in his corruption case, Billy Downer, has been postponed.
Downer and Maughan made a brief appearance, which saw the case postponed until early next year pending the finalisation of bids to have the summonses they were served with last month set aside.
The matter was adjourned to 2 February 2023, with an urgent application by Maughan to be heard in December.
Maughan’s urgent application was postponed due to a conflict of interest on the part of Judge Rishi Seegobin. He did not elaborate on what these are.
Downer has launched his own application to have the private prosecution declared an abuse of court processes.
The applications by Maughan and Downer will not be joined but are likely to be heard one after the other.
During Monday’s proceedings before Judge Nkosinathi Chili, Zuma’s advocate Dali Mpofu conceded that the private prosecution was “unique” and “even strange” for him as a legal practitioner.
He said it was also “unique” because Zuma, a former president, was the private prosecutor.
Mpofu said Zuma had put down a R500 000 deposit to continue with the prosecution.
Advocate Wim Trengove SC, representing Downer, told Chili they had launched an application against the private prosecution and would ask the court to hear it.
Zuma has accused Maughan of colluding with the State to publish his medical records without his permission.
The medical document was attached to court papers lodged at the High Court in 2021. Documents filed with the court are deemed to be public records unless a judge instructs otherwise. There was no instruction in this instance.
It didn’t reveal details of Zuma’s condition.
Zuma wants Maughan’s urgent application to be dismissed, arguing that he was entitled to prosecute the journalist.
The former president has listed 21 witnesses whom he intends to call in the matter, including Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, NDPP Shamilla Batohi, KwaZulu-Natal DPP Elaine Zungu and President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Meanwhile Zuma made a veiled attack on the judiciary while also mocking his political opponents during his first public appearance after the end of his 15-month sentence.
“I am prepared for whatever might come my way. The struggle is not yet over. I want to thank you, especially, because when times were tough and I was sent to prison for 15 months, you were there,” he told supporters.
“The sad part was that I was arrested for no reason at all. The real reason was because I refused to heed the advice of judges of the Constitutional Court when they asked me to do something that was against the Constitution when they were trying to force me to answer questions even against my own will, which is against the law.
“When they insisted, I then said I would not go to their court; they could do whatever they wanted. I will repeat this again if they take the same stance,” threatened Zuma.
He added that he had fought for the liberation of South Africans and therefore he could not participate in what he described as the “limitation of his Constitutional rights” by the Constitutional Court judges.
“I decided to fight for our freedom and will not be forced back to oppression even by a judge. Even if they [the judges] were to say tomorrow that I must break the law as they were asking me, then I would still go against them,” said Zuma.
Zuma also mocked ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe, who had said that Zuma putting his hand up to challenge him in December was the biggest joke of the year. Zuma called Mantashe’s comments “absurd”.
The former president told his supporters that now that he was a free man, he would divulge ANC secrets that he had long threatened to share.