Court to explain why Downer won’t be removed from Zuma’s arms deal case

KwaZulu-Natal High Court Judge Nkosinathi Chili is expected to explain his decision to deny former president Jacob Zuma’s request to remove Advocate Billy Downer from the arms deal corruption case.

The former president’s corruption trial returned to the Pietermaritzburg High Court last month for a pre-trial hearing, but was postponed to 11 September after Chili agreed to provide reasons for his decision.

Zuma’s relentless appeals

Chili backed down from his previous decision in March when he dismissed Zuma’s second bid to remove Downer after finding that the former president failed to show that the state prosecutor’s continued presence as his prosecutor would violate his rights to a fair trial.

Chili’s decision to provide reasons may bolster Zuma’s ongoing campaign to push for Downer’s removal.

Should Chili allow the former Zuma to continue his appeals, the judgment will have to ignore the rulings given by three of his colleagues in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg and the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

ALSO READ: Zuma says plans for 2025 trial ‘premature’ as he’ll continue fighting for Downer’s removal [VIDEO]

The justices found that Jacob Zuma’s attempt to privately prosecute Advocate Billy Downer was yet another example of his abusive ‘Stalingrad’ litigation strategy.

Downers removal

Chili’s decision to provide reasons came after Zuma’s lawyer, Advocate Dali Mpofu, made an impassioned plea for the court not to finalise the trial dates until Zuma had exhausted all his appeals.

During the proceeding, Mpofu slammed plans for Zuma’s 2025 arms deal trial as “premature” and confirmed that the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party leader will keep fighting for the removal of Downer.

In May, Chili confirmed that KwaZulu-Natal High Court Judge President Thoba Portia Poyo-Dlwati had allocated dates from April to September 2025 for Zuma’s trial – 20 years after he was first charged.

Despite multiple courts having rejected Zuma’s various bids against Downer, Mpofu continued to persist with Zuma’s argument that he should be removed – and effectively contends that the only way he will agree to his trial proceeding will be if the prosecutor is gone.

Arms deal charges

In March, Zuma had applied for Downer to be removed from the prosecution over alleged bias, saying his fair trial rights would be infringed if the prosecutor remained.

However, Chili once again dismissed the MK party leader’s bid after finding that the former president failed to show that Downer’s continued presence as his prosecutor would violate his rights to a fair trial.

Chili, however, did not provide reasons for the decision at the time, saying he will share them in his final judgment at the end of the trial.

Zuma, alongside French arms company Thales, faces multiple charges of fraud, corruption, money laundering and racketeering linked the multi-billion rand defence procurement project in 1999.

The last pre-trial hearing of the state’s case against Zuma happened in February 2021. The minutes of that meeting noted that Zuma placed it on record that “he is ready for the trial” but said he reserved his rights.

The case has been delayed by Zuma’s repeated efforts to remove Billy Downer.

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