Former South African President Jacob Zuma. Picture : Neil McCartney
Former President Jacob Zuma insists there are no ulterior motives behind his private prosecution of News24 journalist Karyn Maughan, and that he has a right to prosecute her.
The private prosecution matter between Zuma, Advocate Billy Downer and Maughan is set to be heard on 10 October in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
Zuma opened a criminal complaint in October last year at the Pietermaritzburg police station against Downer for allegedly leaking his confidential medical records to Maughan.
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The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) gave Zuma a private prosecution certificate – known as a nolle prosequi certificate – in June this year, after it declined to prosecute Downer for allegedly leaking the former president’s medical records.
The NPA cited a lack of evidence for its decision.
Zuma only served two months of a 15-month prison sentence imposed by the Constitutional Court for contempt of its order compelling him to appear before the State Capture Commission of Inquiry.
He was released on medical parole by former prison boss Arthur Fraser in September last year. This decision was later ruled to be unlawful, but was appealed by Zuma’s legal team.
If he were to have served the full 15 months, Zuma’s prison sentence would have officially ended on Friday, 7 October.
Had he not have been released on medical parole, Zuma’s sentence would have officially ended in October 2022.
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Maughan has now filed an urgent application challenging her prosecution, in which she accused Zuma of having “ulterior” motives.
“Mr Zuma’s answer, replete as it is with vitriolic attacks against me and my reporting, confirms that he is intent on discrediting and silencing me as a journalist. It is clear that his institution of a private prosecution against me is instituted for that ulterior and impermissible purpose,” she said.
In an answering affidavit filed in the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court in Pietermaritzburg, Maughan also said she rejected Zuma’s claims that her reporting against him was biased.
“My reporting on Mr Zuma’s trial is informed by my independent and professional assessment of the facts and a concern to report on legal developments in the public interest.
“The public has a right to know how Mr Zuma’s criminal prosecution unfolds and, where there are delays in the trial, the reason for those delays. This would be true of any criminal trial, but finds particular application in respect of criminal proceedings that have been the subject of a multitude of legal delays amounting to some 229 months (19 years),” Maughan said.
In papers opposing Maughan’s application, Zuma denied he was targeting the journalist, and that he had a right to prosecute Maughan.
Zuma said Maughan’s application represented one of the “a stillborn attempt to prevent the inevitable”.
“In doing so‚ I do not seek to stop her from reporting about my trial. I do not even wish for balanced reporting from her because she is incapable of that. I wish to prevent her from committing a crime with the NPA officials to my personal prejudice and to the prejudice of the prosecution as well as the administration of justice as a whole,” Zuma said.
Zuma said it was Maughan who had an ulterior motive, and that she was assisting what he called “the NPA’s media campaign” to portray him as a criminal.
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