The Johannesburg High Court dismissed former president Jacob Zuma's application for leave to appeal against a ruling preventing him from privately prosecuting President Cyril Ramaphosa. He's likely to head for the Supreme Court of Appeal.

On Tuesday, 12 September, a full Bench of the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg unanimously dismissed an application for leave to appeal brought by former president Jacob Zuma as he continues to try to privately prosecute President Cyril Ramaphosa.

This was the second defeat in two days as the Pietermaritzburg High Court made a similar ruling in his cases against prosecutor Billy Downer and journalist Karyn Maughan on Monday. Judges Lebogang Modiba, Selby Baqwa and Ismail Mohamed dismissed Zuma's latest application with costs.

The ruling, which was delivered electronically, was as much an assessment of Zuma's conduct in the case as that of his legal team, including advocate Dali Mpofu. The court dealt briefly with the appeal, saying that it considered the "elaborate grounds for appeal as set out in his application".

"We are not persuaded that Mr Zuma meets the test for leave to appeal on any of the two statutory provisions on which he relies. We therefore stand by the reasons and orders set out in the judgment," the judges said.

This pronouncement occupied just the first page of the judgment. The remaining six pages were spent dealing with an issue which the court anticipated...