Tshwarelo Hunter Mogakane
Pretoria - Ultra-left political organisation, the Land Party, has called on National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi to ask advocate Billy Downer to recuse himself from the arms deal matter he is leading against Jacob Zuma.
The party believes a conflict of interest has arisen as Zuma is now privately prosecuting the lead prosecutor in his 17-year corruption case.
On Monday, Downer appeared in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in KwaZulu-Natal with his co-accused, journalist Karyn Maughan, on charges of contravening the National Prosecution Act.
Zuma sought private prosecution after Batohi declined to prosecute Downer, who is accused of unlawfully leaking Zuma’s medical records to Maughan, a News24 journalist.
Maughan’s lawyers told the high court that they were challenging her prosecution on jurisdiction and the fact that while Zuma was granted a nolle prosequi certificate that allowed him to privately prosecute Downer, he did not hold the same formal notice to enable him to prosecute Maughan.
Yesterday, Land Party leader Gcobani Ndzongana said Zuma’s prosecution of Downer posed a conflict of interest for the leading senior council in the State versus Zuma and Thales matter.
“The Land Party is appealing to the head of the prosecution authority to (remove) advocate Billy Downer from the trial of former president Jacob Zuma as advocate Downer is now formally conflicted and is not going to be (impartial) in the matter.
“The Land Party believes that the recusal of advocate Downer will be in the interest of justice and the people of South Africa at large,” said Ndzongana.
Ndzongana applauded Zuma and his legal counsel, advocate Dali Mpofu, for making the decision to privately prosecute Downer.
“The Land Party condemns anyone who undermines human rights, and the party believes that the court will arrive at a logical conclusion and prove to all the law-abiding citizens that the law is not set for blacks only,” he said.
Zuma’s corruption, money laundering and racketeering charges date back to 2005.
The case against him has been thrown out of court several times, but was ultimately reinstated.
He is accused of receiving bribes from French company Thales, the second accused in the case. The company has bemoaned delays to the trial.
The corruption case saw Zuma being almost sidelined from contesting the 2007 Polokwane national elective conference of the ANC. However, he emerged the winner of the ANC’s presidential race, beating former president Thabo Mbeki, who was standing for a third term as leader of the party.
Zuma’s legal woes saw him struggle to take over the reins of the state following Mbeki’s resignation in September 2008. The party’s deputy at the time, Kgalema Motlanthe, took over as acting president of South Africa.
In 2009, then prosecutions boss Mokotedi Mpshe decided to drop the charges following the emergence of what came to be known as the “spy tapes” that hinted at political meddling in the case.
In 2016, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, ruled that Mpshe’s decision to drop the charges against Zuma was irrational. The following year Zuma appealed against the ruling in the Supreme Court of Appeal, which upheld the high court ruling.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga did not mince his words when asked to respond to the Land Party’s plea.
“Advocate Billy Downer will lead the prosecution team against Mr Zuma and Thales as we (the NPA) have confidence in him,” Mhaga said.
Pretoria News