The case between President Cyril Ramaphosa and his predecessor former president Jacob Zuma has been reserved for judgment on Monday.
The matter was heard by a full bench of judges at Johannesburg High Court on yesterday/.
Ramaphosa’s lawyer argued that Zuma is unlawfully trying to prosecute the president by not properly following the Constitution.
Ramaphosa is trying to interdict criminal proceedings instituted by Zuma in December wherein the former president is accusing the current president of failing to act when asked to do so after Advocate Billy Downer of National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) allegedly leaked his medical records to journalist Karyn Maughan.
Zuma complained that Downer, and a lawyer representing the NPA, advocate Andrew Breitenbach, had behaved improperly.
Ramaphosa had referred the complaint to Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, who has final oversight over the NPA. He advised Lamola to refer the matter to the Legal Practice Council.
In his argument in court, Ramaphosa’s lawyer Advocate Ngwako Maenetje said Zuma wanted Ramaphosa in the dock just for political point-scoring.
“This prosecution is prima facie unlawful. Why must my client be exposed to unlawful prosecution?” asked Maenetje.
“The court cannot allow this to happen because this is just a political score that Mr Zuma wants to settle.
“My client will suffer clear harm. With great respect, this application has a lot of political innuendos and is premised on Mr Zuma instituting unlawful criminal proceedings,” said Maenetje.
Advocate Dali Mpofu who represented Zuma accused Ramaphosa of wasting state resources by filing for an urgent interdict when it was unnecessary.
He said Ramaphosa cannot use his status not to answer in court.
“In one paragraph he’s saying he can’t come to court because he is the president and Rand will fall; in another he says his dignity as a person is also affected…,” he said.
The renowned Advocate said Ramaphosa has just got to account.
“Any person that has been accused of crime, rightly or wrongly whether they will be acquitted in the end have to suffer the inconvenience of appearing in court and the inconvenience of putting their defence,” said
If Ramaphosa fails to convince the court to stop the prosecution he will be expected to appear in court on 19th of January.
