Zuma turns to ConCourt in bid to appeal dismissal of special plea application

Former president Jacob Zuma has approached the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) in a bid to appeal the dismissal of his application to remove prosecutor Billy Downer from his corruption trial.

“In its ruling on 23 September 2022, the ConCourt stated that such an application is competent under the circumstances of this case,” said the Jacob Zuma Foundation in a statement on Friday.

It further confirmed the former president will not be present in court on Monday.

Late last month, when the ConCourt dismissed Zuma’s bid to force former head of the Supreme Court of Appeal Mandisa Maya to reconsider his bid to remove Downer.

READ MORE: Zuma loses bid in ConCourt for Maya to reconsider removal of Downer

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 his corruption trial, after the former president alleged that the prosecutor was biased.

Now the former president has approached the court again, a few days before his scheduled court appearance on Monday.

The former president has since launched private prosecution proceedings against Downer, claiming he leaked his confidential medical records to News24 journalist Karyn Maughan.

The alleged leak relates to a letter written by Brigadier Mcebisi Mdutywa last year, when Zuma was imprisoned at Estcourt Correctional Centre in KwaZulu-Natal for being in contempt of court, after he refused to appear before the state capture commission.

In his letter to prison authorities, Mdutywa said Zuma had suffered a “traumatic injury” in November 2020, and needed “extensive emergency treatment” with six months to recover

The matter was heard on 10 October 2022, and was adjourned until December.

READ MORE: Karyn Maughan, Billy Downer’s application to set aside Zuma’s prosecution to be heard in December

Compiled by Vhahangwele Nemakonde. Additional reporting by Faizel Patel.