A legal expert believes that former President Jacob Zuma’s attempt to privately prosecute President Cyril Ramaphosa is misplaced.
On Thursday, the Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma Foundation announced the former president’s intention to drag Ramaphosa to the courts.
Zuma claims his successor failed to act when called on to intervene in a legal dispute between him and National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) senior prosecutor, Billy Downer, as well as News24 journalist, Karyn Maughan.
Ramaphosa has since written back to Zuma demanding that he withdraws the private prosecution bid.
“The only thing that Jacob Zuma complains about is to say ‘I sent him a letter and asked him to investigate the matter and he did nothing about it’. Now, firstly, there isn’t a crime in that. Secondly, it isn’t a crime in terms of Section 41 (6) of the National Prosecuting Act,” says Benedict Phiri, a legal analyst, and managing director at IusPrudentia Specialist Counsel.
Phiri warned that Zuma could be slapped with a financial penalty if he proceeded with the attempt to privately prosecute the president.
“What the Criminal Procedure Act also allows is that the court, in dealing with this matter, can grant punitive costs where it finds that the matter is vexatious and I would say that in this particular instance, it’s very likely that the former president, in the bringing of this private prosecution, will be vexatious and he will likely be met with punitive costs.”
-EWN
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