Explainer | What is expected when Jacob Zuma goes to court

Former president Jacob Zuma’s private prosecution of advocate Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan for alleged breaches of the National Prosecuting Act for the alleged leak of his private medical records kicks off in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday.

However, it is likely very little will happen, and the judge will only set out directions on the way forward.

Zuma, as the private prosecutor, will be in attendance.

Maughan has launched an urgent court application seeking to stop the prosecution. This was set down on the unopposed motion court roll to be heard on Monday morning. However, the former president is opposing this, and it means this will have to be set down on an opposed roll and will possibly only be heard later this year.

Downer has filed a similar application, and this has been set down for December this year.

If Zuma wants to proceed with his private prosecution, Downer and Maughan will argue this morning that these applications need to be resolved before it can go ahead.

In the meantime, his criminal trial — in which he and French arms company Thales are facing charges of money laundering, corruption and fraud — is likely to be put on hold again when he next appears before judge Koen later this month.

It is likely he will argue that he has a right to prosecute his appeal at the apex court and, secondly, that the private prosecution should be allowed to run its course and he cannot be prosecuted by Downer while he is prosecuting the advocate.

Downer has also filed an application, which will have to be determined by the judge appointed to hear the private prosecution, for an order compelling Zuma to put up a R1m deposit in security of his fees.

Zuma has lodged a R90,000 deposit. Downer says this is wholly inadequate, given the matter will run in the high court and Zuma wants to call more than 20 witnesses. He said his legal fees, which include senior and junior counsel in a trial which will run for more than 10 days, will cost more than R1m.

The former president served summons on Downer and News24 journalist Maughan to appear in court after the National Director of Public Prosecutions declined to prosecute on the criminal charges he had previously laid against them.

At issue is the alleged “leaking” of court documents, containing the “confidential” medical report, in August last year when Zuma’s legal team were applying for a postponement of his arms deal-related criminal trial because he was sick.

The report was attached to court documents filed by both his lawyers and the State which came before trial court judge Piet Koen.

Maughan admitted she asked for, and received, the State’s papers ahead of the hearing “in preparation” of covering the postponement hearing, but only reported on their contents once they were formally before the court and became public documents.

She also argued there was no detail about his medical condition in the report.

Maughan said the private prosecution is an abuse of the court, and designed to stop her from reporting on the trial.

Downer, similarly, has argued he did nothing wrong and the private prosecution is another ploy by Zuma to avoid trial and boost his attempts to have him removed as lead prosecutor.

Zuma, after pleading not guilty to the corruption charges in the arms deal-related trial, launched an application to have Downer removed, alleging he had no “title to prosecute” under the Criminal Procedure Act because he was biased. His application was refused by judge Koen and subsequent appeals to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) have failed. However, the Constitutional Court recently ruled he can appeal the matter at the apex court.

The former president was formally released from correctional supervision on Friday.

The 15 month sentence he was ordered to serve by the Constitutional Court for being in contempt of its order that he appear before the state capture inquiry expired on Friday.

Zuma served less than two months behind bars, and most of that in a prison hospital section and then a private hospital, before being controversially released on medical grounds by former prison boss Arthur Fraser, although he remained under correctional supervision.

Fraser’s decision has subsequently been found to be unlawful by the Pretoria high court. Zuma has taken this on appeal to the SCA, which has heard argument. A ruling is pending.

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