Former South African president Jacob Zuma has agreed to strike out his allegations against the lead prosecutor in his corruption case, APA learnt on Thursday.
Among Zuma’s accusations directed against prosecutor Billy Downer, who is white, was that the advocate was “a liar too driven by his hatred of me to be objective about my case.”
The retraction meant that the claims, which include Zuma’s contention that Downer was nostalgic for apartheid-era prosecutions, would not be considered by the judges deciding Zuma’s application for a permanent stay of prosecution from the corrupt allegations.
Downer had asked the Pietermaritzburg High Court to “strike” or remove, over a dozen “scandalous and vexatious” and “untrue and unwarranted” statements Zuma has made about him in his application for a permanent stay of his corruption prosecution.
“First, without any substantiation, Zuma alleges that I hate him. I am blinded by an obsession with his conviction. That I seem nostalgic about the manner in which apartheid prosecutions authorities deal with those they considered guilty or undesirable…and that persons within the National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) may have apartheid withdrawal symptoms,” Downer states.
He added that the “State is prejudiced by (these) parts of Zuma’s replying affidavit…because they amount to reckless and odious posturing apparently aimed at condemning the public’s perception of the integrity of the NPA and particularly the person responsible for conducting the prosecution in court (i.e. me)”.
In Zuma’s application for a permanent stay of prosecution, which is Zuma’s last bid to stop his pending trial for racketeering, corruption, fraud and tax evasion trial from going ahead, the former state president also accused Downer of “astounding duplicity” and having “an aversion to the truth.”
Downer argued these claims were completely untrue and defamatory, and must be removed from Zuma’s court papers.
NM/jn/APA