Zuma pleased ‘sanity has prevailed’ for Ramaphosa regarding private prosecution

The JG Zuma Foundation says it is pleasantly surprised that President Cyril Ramaphosa has “finally come to his senses” regarding the private prosecution brought against him by former president Jacob Zuma.

This after Ramaphosa on Tuesday indicated that he plans to bring an urgent application to prevent the matter from proceeding in January.

What are the charges?

Zuma had instituted a private prosecution against Ramaphosa on the eve of the ANC national elective conference earlier this month.

He accused Ramaphosa of being an “accessory after the fact” in a criminal offence alleged against Advocate Billy Downer who is accused of improperly sharing Zuma’s medical information with journalist Karyn Maughan.

ALSO READ: Ramaphosa gives Zuma until Monday to withdraw private prosecution

Ramaphosa had initially argued that in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Act, a private prosecution can only be instituted after the individual prosecuting has obtained a certificate of non-prosecution.

Ramaphosa further argued that the certificate serves as a legal confirmation that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) will not proceed with the prosecution following its consideration of the charges, and since he believed Zuma had not provided such a certificate, private prosecution was dead in the water.

Glad he’s ‘finally come to his senses’

On Wednesday the JG Zuma Foundation said it was glad Ramaphosa has finally taken legal steps to “allow the courts to determine the validity or otherwise of the criminal summons delivered by the Private Prosecutor”.

“This is a far cry from the absurd and preposterous stance initially adopted by Ramaphosa, his media praise-singers and “legal experts” that he is legally entitled to simply “ignore” the criminal charges and summons issued by the Registrar of the High Court,” the Foundation’s statement reads.

They question what Ramaphosa hopes to have nullified, considering that the State Attorney and Kgalema Mothlante had already dismissed the charges on Ramaphosa’s behalf.

Also Read: Year of private prosecutions: Timeline of Zuma’s battle against Downer, Maughan, Ramaphosa

They also condemned Ramaphosa slow reaction, saying he had wasted time while following questionable advice.

“… he now expects President Zuma to miraculously access his legal team whose members are obviously on family holidays to launch an application during the Christmas long weekend is clearly intended to cause the maximum inconvenience, especially when valuable time was wasted on unsustainable positions and issuing meaningless threats and deadlines.”

Why wait till now?

They also accuse Ramaphosa of artificially manufacturing the urgency of his application by waiting till now, instead of bringing it immediately after the delivery of the summons against him.

“The alleged urgency of the application is clearly simulated, self-created and malicious. H. E President Zuma will do his best to locate and consult with his legal team. Once they have studied the papers a more comprehensive statement will be released.”

They further argue that instead of wasting the court’s time, Ramaphosa, “like all other criminally accused persons, must raise whatever concerns he has in the criminal proceedings which will take place only a few days after his application. If indeed all are equal before the law then this application will be dismissed as nothing but transparent intimidation tactics and a blatant invitation for undue preferential treatment. “