Former President Jacob Zuma wants President Cyril Ramaphosa slapped with a personal costs order, on the back of his application to review the private prosecution he is facing.
Zuma is privately prosecuting Ramaphosa on charges of being an accessory after the fact.
The matter relates to crimes accused State Advocate Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan of in a separate private prosecution.
The Pretoria High Court last month interdicted the proceedings, pending an application from Ramaphosa to have his private prosecution reviewed and set aside.
That application is set to be heard next week.
In his heads of argument, Zuma accused Ramaphosa of causing “unnecessary delays”.
Zuma insists “the essence” of Ramaphosa’s review application “is based on smoke and mirrors”.
He maintained the “true purpose” was “to delay or even completely avoid the inevitable prosecution and criminal accountability”.
And given what he labelled “the clear intention to abuse the process of the court by causing unnecessary delays to the inevitable necessary prosecution”, he said the court ought to issue Ramaphosa with a punitive order of costs, and make him pay from his own pocket.
He also wanted the KwaZulu-Natal Director of Public Prosecutions and the National Prosecuting Authority slapped with punitive costs orders.
In the event the application’s successful, though, Zuma’s invoked the Biowatch principle, which provided that parties suing the state on constitutional issues should generally be spared from adverse cost orders, even if they lose.
-EWN
In other news – Actor Gabriel Temudzani (Chief Azwindini) speaks out after leaving Muvhango
South African actor Gabriel Temudzani, who bid farewell to Muvhango on Monday, 8 May says leaving the soapie was an emotional roller coaster.
The popular Muvhango actor Gabriel Temudzani, who played Azwinidini Mukwevho for more than two decades tells a local publication that he’s ready to apply himself in other spaces. “It’s an emotional roller coaster. Muvhango has been my home for a long time and unfortunately, we are here. Learn More
