JOHANNESBURG - Former President Jacob Zuma insists that there are no ulterior motives behind his private prosecution of News24 journalist Karyn Maughan.
Last year, Zuma opened a criminal case against the lead prosecutor in his corruption trial, State advocate Billy Downer, for the “leaking” of a confidential medical note to Maughan.
After the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) declined to prosecute Downer, Zuma launched a private prosecution against both him and Maughan.
Maughan has now filed an urgent application challenging her prosecution, in which she’s accused Zuma of having ulterior motives, saying, in truth, he’s simply trying to intimidate her and stop her from reporting on his trial.
In papers opposing the application, though, he vehemently denies this.
Zuma says it is Maughan who in fact has an ulterior motive and that she’s assisting what he calls “the NPA’s media campaign” to portray him as a criminal.
He’s accused her of feeding into the NPA’s “propaganda” that he’s using every trick in the book to wriggle out of his corruption trial.
However, he maintains he bears no ill will against her, denying that her coverage of his case has ever raised his ire.
In her papers, Maughan’s referred to a string of abusive Twitter posts from Zuma’s followers, his namesake foundation and his daughter, Duduzile Sambudla-Zuma, directed at her, including one in which Sambudla-Zuma shared a tweet referencing journalists being beaten up in Sri Lanka and tagged Maughan, saying “come look here”.
But Zuma says they weren’t acting on his instructions and insists his daughter has a “constitutional right to comment and express her views”.
