Media Statement
11 April 2022
This statement deals with the court case of His Excellency President Zuma application scheduled to be argued tomorrow on the 11 April 2022 at the PMB High Court.
Today the Foundation seeks to make some key announcements that the Foundation deems to be in the public interest. The Foundation wishes to take the nation into its confidence including those who will not be able to follow the proceedings due to work commitments
The Foundation has received and observed a very disturbing account of the developments that happened in the last week.
We have witnessed a desperate frenzy of activity and panic from the NPA in its attempts to cleanse Adv Downer by any means necessary including adopting procedures and processes that should be frowned upon and found wanting by any fair justice system.
Members of the media would be aware that way back about 6 months ago, 21 October 2021, His Excellency President was at the PMB Police station in person to lay very serious criminal charges against the lead Prosecutor, Adv Downer SC and his accomplices.
This related to the leaking of confidential information to a journalist in contravention of the NPA act which as a matter of fact was admitted under oath in an affidavit by Downer.
Since then, the NPA has practically been dragging its feet making all kinds of excuses for lack of progress in investigating Downer and the others for the alleged breaches.
Out of the blue in the last week or so, a frenzy of activities from the State has seen the police taking a statement in Cape Town from Advocate Breitenbach SC one of the implicated prosecutors on 1 April 2022 and another statement from taken on 7 April from Karyn Maughan at the Rosebank Police Station in Johannesburg.
In the middle of all this and on the 5th of April 2022, a decision was taken by the NPA that it will not prosecute Adv Downer. In all the confusion it looks like the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing because the said "decision" was clearly made even before all the statements were taken. Speed Kills
Another very disturbing new information is that the Investigating Officer as part of his engagement with President Zuma on the 8th April 2022, he innocently reported that it was decreed that their investigations be directed from the offices of the KZN NPA.
On the face of it nothing turns on that, probably because the scene of crime was in KZN.
However, if one takes into account that the KZN NPA Office, is the same office where President Zuma's prosecution is being masterminded.
As things stand the legal team of His Excellency President Zuma is still awaiting the reasons and the certificate confirming this spurious decision which was only communicated to him through the ZOOM meeting in the afternoon of Friday 8 April 2022
Around lunchtime on Saturday 9 April the NPA served a supplementary affidavit in a bid to bolster its case in the postponement application by referring to these carefully orchestrated events.
Where to from here?
The Foundation confirms that His Excellency President Zuma will be in the Pietermaritzburg Court tomorrow, 11th April 2022
His Excellency President Zuma through his legal team will be responding to the supplementary affidavit served by the NPA where they seek to introduce new evidence of the events of the last few days.
The Announcement.
In his response His Excellency President Zuma will remind the court that he has long anticipated that the NPA would refuse to prosecute one of their own even after his recent retirement. He therefore informed the court in his previous affidavits that he had instructed his legal team to institute Private Prosecution proceedings against Adv Downer with immediate effect subject to all the required administrative protocols as soon as the NPA announced its expected biased decision. That instruction will now be put into operation in the next few days.
We also wish to announce that the Legal Team of His Excellency President Zuma has filed his reconsideration application to the President of the SCA. The Foundation is forever grateful to the efficiency and diligence of the legal team of H.E President Zuma.
Conclusion
All His Excellency President Zuma really wants is his day in court, in a fair trial and certainly not in a forum which is being rigged by the State in the manner described above and all the previous unfair and incorrect decisions which will hopefully be corrected by the higher courts.
Above all President Zuma calls on all those who support him to be vigilant, disciplined & patient and always to act within the law.
No person should take the law into their own hands and there must not be abuse of positional authority.
President Zuma will continue to respect the courts irrespective of the treatment meted out to him, like he did when he was incarcerated without a trial and denied the right to appeal and mitigate his sentence.
In the end injustice will never triumph over justice. As the Freedom Charter promised, one day all shall be equal before the law!
President Zuma is applying for a postponement only because at present moment it is very clear that the conditions for a fair trial are non-existent, when the person who will soon be Accused Number 1 in prosecution instituted by him is allowed to prosecute him on behalf of the State.
The legal team of President Zuma is ready to present his case tomorrow and until justice is done.
Finally, the Foundation wishes President Zuma a very special and Happy 80th Birthday on Tuesday 12 April 2022.
Issued by Mzanele Manyi on behalf of the JG Zuma Foundation, 11 April 2022
