Johannesburg – President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday “noted and welcomed” the judgment by the Johannesburg High Court setting aside the private prosecution instituted by former President Jacob Zuma.
Zuma’s gripe was that President Ramaphosa failed to take any action when he complained that state prosecutor Advocate Billy Downer unlawfully leaked his private medical information.
Advocate Downer is the prosecutor in Zuma’s long-running arms-deal corruption matter. However, on Wednesday the court found that Zuma’s private prosecution of President Ramaphosa was unlawful and unconstitutional.
In arriving at the ruling, the court found that the nolle prosequi certificate issued to Zuma by the KwaZulu-Natal director of private prosecution did not apply to President Ramaphosa. Zuma was ordered to pay Ramaphosa’s costs, including costs of two counsel.
“The President has always maintained that Mr. Zuma’s private prosecution constituted an abuse of court processes and that it was unlawful and unconstitutional,” said Vincent Magwenya, spokesperson to the President in a statement.
*This article was first published by thebulrushes.com.
