The South African High Court sitting in Johannesburg has dismissed former president Jacob Zuma’s appeal to have his private prosecution of President Cyril Ramaphosa heard in the court.
In a unanimous ruling on Tuesday, Johannesburg High Court judge Lebogang Modiba dismissed Zuma’s leave to appeal with costs.
This is the second time in 24 hours that Zuma has been rebuffed over a private prosecution he initiated against the president, whom he accused of being an accessory to an alleged “leaking” of what Zuma described as confidential medical information to the press.
Zuma previously alleged that in 2021, Billy Downer, the prosecutor in the arms deal criminal trial where Zuma is a co-accused, disclosed a doctor’s note to journalist Karyn Maughan in an alleged breach of prosecuting legislation.
Zuma claimed Ramaphosa failed to act when informed of the alleged disclosure and thus had committed a crime.
His private prosecution of Ramaphosa was also dismissed by the same Johannesburg High Court in July.
Zuma also sought to privately prosecute Downer and Maughan but a full bench of the Pietermaritzburg High Court dismissed the case in July as “an abuse of process.”
On Monday the court also dismissed Zuma’s leave to appeal of that finding.
The presidency has welcomed the dismissal of Zuma’s latest appeal.
“As we have always maintained from the onset, the private prosecution had no basis in law — and it constituted an abuse of private prosecution provisions,” the presidency said.
NM/jn/APA