Zuma vs Ramaphosa: Legal battle set for January 10 in High Court
By Sihle Mavuso | IOL News |
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s bid to halt and set aside the summons served on him by former president Jacob Zuma will be heard in the Johannesburg high Court on January 10.
That will be nine days before the January 19, 2023 court date Zuma set for Ramaphosa to appear in court as he seeks to privately prosecute him as part of the many people he intends to haul over the coal for the alleged transgressions by Billy Downer.
Zuma alleges that Ramaphosa failed to act when he was asked to after Downer, a senior prosecutor of the National Prosecuting Authority leaked his medical records to the press.
Already in the dock over the leak is Downer and News24 journalist, Karyn Maughan.
Zuma has already raised the R1 million required as security and is now privately prosecuting them.
Late last month, Zuma dragged in Ramaphosa, saying the NPA nolle prosequi (certificate not to prosecute) applies to him.
However, in a legal setback, the NPA said that the amended certificate it issued in November does not apply to Ramaphosa.
Zuma and his legal team insisted that they will go ahead with the prosecution unless it has been set aside by a court of law.
It was then that Ramaphosa and his lawyers rushed to the high court to challenge Zuma.
Ramaphosa claimed that Zuma’s summons are defective and, as such, should be set aside since he was abusing the legal provision.
Both Vincent Magwenya, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, and Mzwanele Manyi, the Jacob Zuma Foundation spokesperson, said that the mooted date was January 10.
“We had requested for the 10th of Jan but we don’t have a date yet,” Magwenya told IOL on Monday.
Zuma’s lawyers have already formally indicated to the court that they would oppose Ramaphosa’s application and their opposing papers would be filed shortly.
“Once the papers are filed, you can access them yourself from the court registrar. But (they have) not yet filed,” Manyi said when asked whether their opposing papers had been filed.
On the issue of the date, he said that Ramaphosa’s legal team had requested January 10.
