Cape Town – Judge Piet Koen has dismissed former president Jacob Zuma’s bid to have lead prosecutor Advocate Billy Downer removed from his corruption trial.
The ruling was delivered at the Pietermaritzburg High court on Tuesday morning.
Zuma accused Downer of leaking information about his corruption trial to third-parties, including spies and some local media houses. He also accused Downer of leaking his confidential medical report to a journalist.
Dealing with the first issue of whether Downer had the right to prosecute or not, Koen said Zuma’s argument was far-fetched as the senior prosecutor was constitutionally mandated to lead his prosecution, IOL reported.
ALSO READ: Jacob Zuma lays criminal charges against Billy Downer for allegedly leaking his medical records
He also dismissed the argument that Downer lacked the independence and impartiality to lead his prosecution, as doing so would taint the case and impugn all the rules of a fair trial.
Koen said if such an excuse would be advanced against prosecutors, a few, if any, would lead prosecutions.
According to EWN, Judge Koen ruled that the 14 grounds of Zuma’s attack on Downer were largely speculative and based on hearsay evidence.
“I conclude in regard to the 14 specific grounds raised, commenting on each individually, that many were based on speculation or suspicion or are based on inadmissible hearsay evidence and not on fact,” the report quoted Judge Koen as saying.
Addressing the media following the dismissal of former president’s bid, the JG Zuma Foundation spokesperson, Mzwanele Manyi said the judgement was one of the most irrational pronouncements he had ever heard.
“This judgment is one of the most irrational pronouncements I’ve ever heard,” #JacobZuma Foundation Spokesperson, Mzwanele Manyi reacts to the dismissal of Zuma’s bid to have Prosecutor Billy Downer recused from his arms deal trial.
Watch: https://t.co/8pNvC1Dh4M#Newzroom405 pic.twitter.com/VYDQK0alod
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) October 26, 2021
“The judge makes reference to the order that he had given on paragraph 3 on the initial order. In that order the judge had said a few things. He had said that the state is allowed to appoint a medical team to examine president Zuma and also that the medical doctor [of president Zuma] is also allowed to come and give oral evidence but he gave a condition at the end of that sentence, if necessary. Now today he makes a u-turn he forgets that he had said “if necessary”. He now says I never said any conditions. I mean what is this? how do you say if necessary and then turn around and say it was unconditional? How can a judge make such a u-turn?,” said Manyi.
He continued: “Secondly, when you deal with the title to prosecute that section 106 that they are talking about, if you read that thing, it’s got a far wider meaning as it were. The judge decides that this title to prosecute you must not read too wide a definition and then he makes a very appalling statement – he says if that wide definition was to be the name of the game basically, no prosecutor will be able to prosecute. So in other words this judge is admitting to mediocrity.”
Zuma and French arms company Thales are facing charges of corruption, racketeering and money laundering in connection with South Africa’s multi-billion-rand arms deal in the 90’s.
Judge Koen said the corruption trial has dragged and stalled for a long time and in the interest of justice, it should go ahead as soon as possible.
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Compiled by Reginald Nhlapo
