Former president Jacob Zuma's stab at a private prosecution of his prosecutor in the arms deal case is nothing else but a spurious attempt at distraction and a delaying tactic in the fraud and corruption case that dates back to 2007 when Billy Downer first brought charges against him. Zuma stands accused of accepting bribes through his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, from French arms manufacturer Thales.

Zuma opened a case with the police in October 2021, days before the high court dismissed a special plea he had raised that Downer lacked the standing to prosecute the case because he was not sufficiently impartial.

Zuma's corruption case has been dragging on for almost two decades, in large part because of the defendant's "Stalingrad strategy". His Stalingrad tactic is to avoid at all costs to have his day in court.

His endless challenges of various kinds have varied widely over the years, but were all baseless and ultimately failed. They served Zuma's purposes, however, because he pursued them as far as he could to play for time.

Bushy Green, Kagiso, Mogale city