Former president Jacob Zuma’s legal team has told the High Court in Pietermaritzburg that the friends of the court have been attacking him.
Advocate Thabani Masuku, for Zuma, has been delivering counter arguments in the former president’s private prosecution matter.
Zuma is accusing Advocate Billy Downer of leaking his confidential medical records, filed in his arms deal trial, to journalist Karyn Maughan. Downer and Maughn are asking the court to set aside the matter.
Masuku says the submissions of South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) and the Helen Suzman Foundation that the private prosecution is an attack on the media, are not true.
“We are here to urge more condemnation on Mr Zuma’s private prosecution, you would have heard, amici, even choice of language in your title Mr Zuma. You submit that amici and the Helen Suzman Foundation has failed to utilize their status as friends of court to make submissions that are helpful in court that would enhance sub judicative process or even enhance its independence. The perception that the court must be independent is very important and when it has friends assisting it who are antagonistic to one party the court ought to be careful how it receives those particular submissions,” says Masuku.
Zuma vs Adv Downer and Maughan court case to hear counter arguments
#sabcnews Journalists are picketing outside the Pietermaritzburg high court in support of Karyn Maughan. pic.twitter.com/Z5XBPxTTc1
— Nonkululeko Hlophe (@Leko3) March 22, 2023
