Read more
Zuma wanted the Constitutional Court to order the SCA, which previously dismissed his private prosecution, to hear the case.
Former South African President and MK party leader Jacob Zuma. Picture: Gallo Images/Daily Maverick/Felix Dlangamandla
Former president and MK party leader Jacob Zuma has been dealt yet another legal blow after his Constitutional Court bid to privately prosecute Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan failed.
On Monday, the apex court unanimously rejected Zuma’s appeal application with costs.
Zuma wanted the Constitutional Court to order the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to hear his appeal against an earlier dismissal of his private prosecution.
This is Zuma’s eighth legal defeat in his attempt to prosecute Downer and Maughan privately.
“The court has concluded that the application for leave to appeal does not engage its jurisdiction,” the apex court stated in a two-page order.
ALSO READ: Zuma suffers yet another defeat in private prosecution of Downer and Maughan
Zuma filed an appeal application to the Constitutional Court after SCA President Mahube Molemela dismissed Zuma’s bid for a reconsideration of summary dismissal in a two-page order in March 2024.
Molemela found “no exceptional circumstances warranting reconsideration or variation of the decision refusing [Zuma’s] application for leave to appeal” by the Kwazulu-Natal High Court.
Three full benches have confirmed that the Pietermaritzburg High Court’s finding in June 2023 that the private prosecution of Downer and Maughan for alleged breaches of the NPA Act by leaking his confidential medical information in August 2021 was an “abuse of the process of court”, had been pursued for an ulterior purpose, and was part Zuma’s ‘Stalingrad strategy’ to avoid trial for the arms deal corruption matter.
After Zuma unsuccessfully tried to appeal the ruling in the SCA, he approached Molemela for his case to be reconsidered, but this bid was dismissed.
Zuma and French arms company Thales are seeking an acquittal, citing lengthy delays in the State’s case against them, which they claim has infringed on their constitutional rights to a fair trial.
The former president and Thales face several charges including fraud, racketeering and money laundering linked to the multibillion-rand arms deal in 1999.
ALSO READ: Thales seeks acquittal after delays and death of witnesses in Zuma case
Download our app