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Medical Records: Zuma Determined To Prosecute Billy Downer & News24 Reporter Karyn Maughan

It is not yet uhuru for South Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma. But the elder statesman isn’t sleeping in his kraal in Nkandla. He’s still fighting. In a new twist in his legal battle with the state, he has launched a private prosecution against state advocate Billy Downer and News 24 journalist Karyn Maughan.

The basis for the launching of a private prosecution against the News24 journalist was her publication of the details of Zuma’s medical condition.

The details were attached to court documents lodgí at the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg in 2021.

According to Zuma, who was granted medical parole by one of his loyalists and then-police boss, Arthur Fraser, revealing his medical condition violated sections of the National Prosecuting Act.

Specifically, the former president’s legal team singled out Downer for having leaked his medical condition to the News24 journalist. Served with a summons on Tuesday, Maughan and Downer are to appear in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg on 10 October.

Adriaan Basson, News24 editor-in-chief, stoutly defended one of his own, describing Zuma’s actions as an attempt to bully the publishing house when he knows it has done nothing wrong.

Well, it remains to be seen what direction the case will take in the coming days.

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