Johannesburg - The Pietermaritzburg High Court has set aside former president Jacob Zuma’s private prosecution of journalist Karyn Maughan and the NPA’s advocate Billy Downer.
Zuma’s application has been set aside with costs. Zuma accused Downer of sanctioning the leak of his medical records to Maughan.
The order from the three judges (Judges Jacqueline Henriques, Gregory Kruger, and Mokgere Masipa) read: ‘’Case No: 12770/22P, the summons issued out of the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court, Pietermaritzburg, on September 5, 2022, under case number CC52/2022P, for the purpose of instituting a private prosecution against the Applicant by the Respondent, is set aside.’’
‘’The respondent is interdicted and restrained from reinstituting, proceeding with, or taking any further steps pursuant to the private prosecution referred to in paragraph 1. The costs of this application are to be paid by the respondent on an attorney and own client scale, such costs to include the costs of two counsel where so employed.’’
The order further read: ‘’Case No: 13062/22P, the summons, by which the Respondent instituted a private prosecution of the Applicant in this court in Case CC52/2022P, is set aside.’’
‘’The respondent is interdicted from pursuing any private prosecution of the applicant on substantially the same charges as those advanced in the summons set aside. The respondent is ordered to pay the applicant's costs on the scale as between attorney and own client, such costs to include the costs of two counsel where so employed.’’
News24’s Pieter De Toit said they welcome the order made today.
‘’At Media24, we are very pleased with the court's judgment this morning. We still haven't received the full judgment. But as far as the order is concerned, I think it's very clear that the court saw this attempt by the former president to privately prosecute a state advocate as well as a journalist as frivolous. So we're very happy. I think it's a strong offence to press freedom, freedom of speech, and freedom of the media. We are very happy that the High Court vindicated the arguments that we brought in court,’’ Du Toit said.
Legal analyst Mpumelelo Zikalala said there is still an option for Zuma to appeal the judgment; he said he can still go back to court and ask for leave to appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
‘’What it basically says is that you can come back here and say, can you please give us leave to the SCA, believing that another court may come to a different conclusion based on the facts and what I have read in the 58-page judgment. I think there's something that they might have missed in the determination of the interpretation of what the law actually says.
‘’So once that has occurred, you may see the reinstitution of these particular proceedings or the reactivation of live summons; it doesn't mean that anything is going to continue while that particular application is pending or that the matter hasn't been done and dusted within the SCA, even the Concourt if they do wish to go there. But appealing is definitely an option available to the former president in terms of saying I believe the SCA will come to a different conclusion and grant me leave to appeal to go there so that I can be able to argue my matter at the SCA,’’ Zikalala said.
At the time of publication, the Jacob Zuma Foundation had not reacted.
The Star