WATCH: Zuma’s bid to force removal of arms deal corruption prosecutor Downer dismissed

Former President Jacob Zuma’s bid to force the removal of his arms deal corruption prosecutor Billy Downer has been dismissed.

The matter was heard in the Pietermaritzburg Court on Wednesday with Judge Nkosinathi Chili presiding.

This is the second time Zuma has tried and failed to remove Downer from his arms deal corruption trial.  

Watch Judge Chili delivering judgment in Zuma’s private prosecution case

[BREAKING NEWS] Pietermaritzburg High Court dismisses former president #JacobZuma's application to have lead prosecutor Adv. #BillyDowner removed from the arms deal corruption trial.

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Zuma was not in court and asked to be excused for reasons that are not entirely clear.

Judgement

Chili dismissed Zuma’s latest bid to remove Downer as his prosecutor after finding that the former president failed to show that Downer’s continued presence as his prosecutor would violate his fair trial rights.

“Having heard submissions made by counsel, the relevant case law and most importantly the four pillars relied upon by Mr Zuma, I am not persuaded that Mr Zuma succeeded in establishing that the retention of Mr Downer as the prosecutor in this matter could prejudice his right to a fair trial [as] enshrined in section 35, subsection 3, of the Constitution.

“I therefore make the following order: the application for the removal of Mr Downer as the public prosecutor in the criminal prosecution of Mr Zuma and Thales South Africa is dismissed,” Chili ruled.

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

Zuma’s advocate Dali Mpofu said he has taken “detailed instructions” from the former president “to proceed with an application for leave to appeal,” the ruling.

Pre-trial

Earlier Downer discussed when Zuma’s arms deal trial could proceed, revealing that Advocate Barry Roux, counsel for French arms company Thales has indicated that he is only available in the second half of next year.

But Downer argued that Zuma should go on trial “as soon as possible” and the case “afforded the highest priority.”

However, Mpofu argued that once Zuma files his application for leave to appeal Wednesday’s judgement, the corruption trial cannot go ahead until the appeal is finalised.

Downer made it very clear that the state will not stand for continued delays in the case, which he said the public also does not accept.

The case has been postponed to 10-17 May for a pre-trial conference.

Objection

Zuma objected to Downer leading his prosecution on behalf of National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), accusing the advocate of prosecutorial bias, claiming that Downer lacked the title to prosecute him.

In argument before Judge Nkosimathi Chili in October last year, the state argued that Zuma’s latest bid to force the removal of Downer was already dead in the water, because the pillars of his case “have been repeatedly and emphatically dismissed” in six different court rulings.

SCA ruling

In a ruling upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) Zuma was dealt a scathing blow, after the court unanimously dismissed his bid to privately prosecute Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan for alleged breaches of the NPA Act by leaking his confidential medical information to Maughan in August 2021.

In the judgment SCA Judge Nathan Ponnan ruled Zuma’s private prosecution is part of the “Stalingrad strategy.”

The ruling confirmed the High Court’s finding that the private prosecution was an “abuse of the process of court” that had been pursued for an ulterior purpose.

The full bench granted an order that enforced its ruling as Zuma attempted to appeal it, in a judgment that was upheld, unanimously, by the SCA and later by the Constitutional Court, 

Charges

The 81-year-old Zuma and French arms manufacturer Thales are facing multiple charges, including fraud‚ corruption, money laundering, and racketeering, in connection with the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal procurement concluded in the late 1990s while he was vice president.

It is the state’s case that Zuma was kept on a corrupt retainer by his former financial advisor, Schabir Shaik, who then used his political clout to further his own business interests.

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