Cyril Ramaphosa and Jacob Zuma’s argument is becoming more heated. By attempting to prevent two party officials from giving public statements, the ANC’s current president made a bold move. He now fears additional legal action from Zuma’s staff after his efforts were frustrated by the courts.
A man who is accustomed to having authority and commanding everyone’s attention cannot be given anything less. Former South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa assumed the presidency on February 15, 2019, following the resignation of Jacob Zuma.
He has been an active member of the African National Congress (ANC) since 1994 and served as chairman from 2007 until 2012 when he became deputy president under Zuma’s presidency. Before entering politics he was an anti-apartheid activist who participated in various strikes during his time at university.
Ramaphosa was granted an emergency restraining order by the entire court on Monday, allowing him to avoid appearing in criminal court this week. Zuma is seeking a private prosecution of his successor as an alleged co-conspirator in the case against Attorney General Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan. He claims the former leaked his medical records to the latter.
On Monday, the court found that Ramaphosa’s legal team had successfully demonstrated the urgency of the ban”Pending a final decision on Part B, the first defendant is ordered to take further steps to comply with the orders of nolle prosequi dated November 21, 2022 and June 6, 2022,” said Deputy Judge Roland Sutherland. But Mzwanele Manyi of the Jacob Zuma Foundation said Zuma may not accept the sentence.”It looks like a cooked sentence… so the lawyers will investigate it because it violated all the foundations of law,” he said.
Zuma’s main claim against Ramaphosa is ridiculously weak – he claims he has the right to prosecute Ramaphosa privately “after the fact” because he did not act against National Prosecuting Authority prosecutor Billy Downer.Of course this is legal nonsense. Ramaphosa has no power over the NPA and the body should run its own affairs. It also does not appear to have issued the legal certificate Zuma needed to prosecute his case.
