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Spare Zuma from merry-go-round of judicial buck passing, legal team urges judge

Former president Jacob Zuma listens to legal arguments in the Pietermaritzburg high court on Monday.
Former president Jacob Zuma listens to legal arguments in the Pietermaritzburg high court on Monday.
Image: Supplied

Former president Jacob Zuma is an “old person” who should not be forced to endure the strain and cost of a trial before being allowed to state his case regarding alleged prosecutorial bias before the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

This was the submission of his lawyer, advocate Dali Mpofu, in Zuma’s bid to appeal last year’s ruling by Pietermaritzburg high court judge Piet Koen refusing his attempt to oust lead prosecutor advocate Billy Downer from prosecuting him on fraud and corruption charges relating to the arms deal.

Zuma alleged that not only is Downer biased, but also accused him of misconduct and said in law, he has no “title” to prosecute him because he would not get a fair trial.

He wants Koen to grant him leave to appeal to the SCA, raising, as Mpofu said in argument on Monday, “a plethora of legal and factual issues of relative complexity, novelty and public importance”.

The state, which is opposing the application, has argued that the Criminal Procedure Act does not permit an appeal in a criminal matter where the accused has not yet been convicted and sentenced.

But Mpofu said this is not so.

“The cases are replete with references to the fact that it is not in the interests of justice to submit an accused to the strain and expense of a trial if it can be avoided by allowing an appeal out of the ordinary sequence.

“All those cases aside, when it comes to former president Zuma, he must be put to that strain, an old person must sit here for six months going through a trial which might be of academic use, because he can only complain about advocate Downer in six, 12 or 18 months' time. How can that be in the interests of justice? Justice for whom?

“The bottom line is that it is not in the interests of justice to submit him [Zuma], or anyone for that matter, to a lengthy trial which may come to zero. It would be the greatest form of injustice.”

Earlier Mpofu submitted Zuma was being “treated differently” from others and, in some instances, with unseemly haste.

In a reference to a technical issue regarding a directive issued by Koen regarding filing of papers, Mpofu said this “unheard of procedure” had unsettled his client because of the way he had been treated previously.

In a reference to the Constitutional Court sentencing him in June last year to serve 15 months in prison for contempt of its ruling that he must give evidence at the state capture inquiry, Mpofu said: “He is the only person who has had to spend time in a prison cell without cross-examining anybody. It was a unique situation designed just for him. 

In my own experience, I've never seen any person, accused or not, in respect of whom the law seems to be so over-eager and speedy to summarily deal with him
Advocate Dali Mpofu for former president Jacob Zuma

“In my own experience, I've never seen any person, accused or not, in respect of whom the law seems to be so over-eager and speedy to summarily deal with him.”

He referred to ConCourt directives in the contempt matter being issued on a Saturday and court applications opposing Zuma being granted medical parole being heard within two weeks.

He also submitted Zuma was in a “no-man’s-land” because Koen had ruled his complaints against Downer and fair trial issues were best dealt with by the trial court.

“With respect, the trial court is you, My Lord,” he said.

“The trial commenced in May 2021 when we submitted the special plea. He is on a merry-go-round of judicial buck passing.”

Zuma has also applied for permission to lead further evidence at the SCA regarding criminal charges he laid against Downer for allegedly “leaking” his personal medical information to a journalist.

Mpofu said that complaint had been laid in October last year, a month after the argument in the special plea and should be considered by the SCA, which could accept or reject it.

Zuma and co-accused French arms company Thales have both pleaded not guilty to racketeering, corruption, money laundering and fraud charges relating to the multibillion rand arms deal. 

Zuma is accused of receiving about R4m via his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik to assist Thales to secure the defence contracts.

Shaik was convicted in 2005 but was released on medical parole in 2009.

The case continues. 

TimesLIVE


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