Former president Jacob Zuma has again lashed out at President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying he has been manipulating the South African judicial system.
He was speaking after the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg postponed his bid against his successor to August 6.
Zuma is accusing the president of committing a criminal offence by not acting against state advocate Billy Downer’s alleged leak of his medical records to journalist Karyn Maughan in 2021.
Speaking to supporters outside court on Thursday, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party leader also questioned why Ramaphosa had not been to court over the Phala Phala scandal.
The Phala Phala scandal surfaced when former spy boss Arthur Fraser revealed that Ramaphosa had allegedly concealed a crime after millions of dollars were stolen at his Limpopo farm in Bela Bela.
$4 million (more than R60m) was allegedly stolen, but Ramaphosa has denied involvement in any criminal conduct, saying the money was the proceeds from game sales.
A Section 89 panel two years ago, chaired by retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, found that Ramaphosa may have committed serious violations of the Constitution by “acting in a manner inconsistent with his office”, exposing himself to a situation involving a conflict between his official responsibilities and his private business, as well as violation of sections of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca) over the foreign currency that was held at his property in Limpopo in 2020.
Zuma called the Phala Phala scandal the “the elephant in the room no one speaks about”.
Speaking in Zulu, Zuma told the crowd: “The democracy that we know as the ANC is gone! I don’t want to be part of that party when I know who to vote for, I’m voting for the MK Party.
“The reason for me to choose and start this different party is because I want to change things within the ANC… this is not our ANC… it’s Ramaphosa’s ANC,” Zuma said.
Zuma announced last December that he would be campaigning for the newly formed MK Party which consisted of some disgruntled former ANC members.
Earlier in court, his attorney, advocate Dali Mpofu, argued that he had the right to ask Ramaphosa to present himself to court.
“In this matter, which is a private prosecution in terms of Section 7, what we have been doing because there are appeals in respect following a review appeal in this court which is being appealed in the SCA – and we always postpone to update the court. So the latest status of the matter is that on the 4th of April, the counsel for Mr Ramaphosa filed an answering affidavit opposing the application for reconsideration in terms of Section 17(2) in the SCA, which means we are now due to do a reply.
“The implications of that are that the matter will have to be postponed once again. The reason why is that unlike a criminal matter where you can withdraw charges and reinstate them, in terms of Section 11 of the Criminal Procedure Act, if the private prosecutor does not appear on a set date the matter is permanently dismissed and therefore the arrangement we have had with this court… is that we will have these. As a result, to avoid coming every month, we have traditionally agreed on a longer-than-normal postponement… so that it allows for the appeals to be finalised.”
The Star