Billy Downer

Downer was born in 1956 in suburban Pretoria, where he attended Pretoria Boys High School.{{Cite web |last=Wiener |first=Mandy |date=26 May 2019 |title=Game on: Billy Downer’s been on Jacob Zuma’s trail for 20 years... now the wait is over |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/opinions/analysis/waiting-in-the-wings-billy-downers-long-wait-is-finally-over-20191017 |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=News24 |language=en-US}} His parents were middle-class United Party supporters; his mother was a physiotherapist and his father, formerly a colonel in the South African Air Force, was a manager at the law firm Adams & Adams.

Downer considered pursuing a career in theatre.{{Cite web |date=2009-04-06 |title=The man who won’t go down |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2009-04-06-the-man-who-wont-go-down/ |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} However, after matriculating, he attended Stellenbosch University, where he lived at Dagbreek and completed a law degree in 1979. Thereafter he went to Brasenose College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar; he graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Law.{{Cite web |date=2018-04-06 |title=7 Things You Need To Know About Advocate Billy Downer |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/7-things-you-need-to-know-about-advocate-billy-downer_uk_5c7e8e2be4b06e0d4c239eb8 |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=HuffPost UK |language=en}}

Downer was admitted as an advocate in the Pretoria High Court in 1980, with a family friend, Frank Kirk-Cohen, appearing for him. Upon his return from Oxford, he joined the Department of Justice in October 1982; his first job was as a prosecutor in the Magistrate's Court in Kuils River outside Cape Town. Shortly thereafter he was conscripted into the apartheid-era South African Defence Force, and he spent two years as an army legal adviser. He returned to the Department of Justice as a prosecutor at the Wynberg Magistrate's Court, and in 1986 he was recruited into the office of Neil Rossouw, the Attorney-General for the Cape Province.

Under the mentorship of Rossouw's successor, Frank Kahn, Downer developed a specialism in commercial prosecutions. He continued to work as a state advocate in a similar capacity after the attorney-general's office was merged into the post-apartheid National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). In 2008 he publicly opposed President Thabo Mbeki's decision to disband the Scorpions.{{Cite web |date=2008-05-29 |title=Disbanding Scorpions ‘will protect politicians’ |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2008-05-29-disbanding-scorpions-will-protect-politicians/ |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} He retired in 2021.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

{{Main article|Jacob Zuma corruption charges}}

Downer is best known to the public for his role in prosecuting former President Jacob Zuma on fraud and corruption charges related to the 1999 Arms Deal.{{Cite web |last=Basson |first=Adriaan |date=24 May 2021 |title=Where is the next generation of Billy Downers in the NPA? |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/opinions/columnists/adriaanbasson/adriaan-basson-where-is-the-next-generation-of-billy-downers-in-the-npa-20210523 |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=News24 |language=en-US}} Downer was appointed to the Arms Deal investigation in 2000, while Zuma was the Deputy President, and he initially focused on the leg of the investigation that targeted Chippy Shaik and Schabir Shaik. In 2004 and 2005 he led the prosecution of Schabir Shaik in a trial that culminated with Shaik's conviction on charges of bribing Zuma.{{Cite web |date=2004-09-30 |title=Shaik trial: ‘Zuma was bribed’ |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-10-01-shaik-trial-zuma-was-bribed/ |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}{{Cite web |date=2004-10-11 |title=Shaik trial: Judge mulls live broadcasts |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-10-11-shaik-trial-judge-mulls-live-broadcasts/ |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} Meanwhile, when related charges were brought against Zuma, he was also made the leading prosecutor on the Zuma case.{{Cite web |date=2006-09-06 |title=Has Zuma something to hide? |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2006-09-07-has-zuma-something-to-hide/ |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} Journalist Sam Sole claimed that state agents surveilled his private telephone conversations with Downer about the case.{{Cite web |date=2014-10-02 |title=Spy tapes: McCarthy, ‘Billy the Kid’ and me |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2014-10-02-lessons-in-accountability-on-spy-tapes/ |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}

The prosecution of Zuma has taken many years with Zuma having been accused of using Stalingrad tactics to evade his day in court.{{Cite web |title=Zuma's Stalingrad tactic has backfired, and it'll cost him more than money |url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-10-14-zumas-stalingrad-tactic-has-backfired-and-itll-cost-him-more-than-money/ |access-date=2019-10-25 |website=TimesLIVE |language=en-ZA}}{{Cite news |last=Town |first=Bill Corcoran in Cape |title=Zuma employing 'Stalingrad defence' as legal stalling strategy |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/africa/zuma-employing-stalingrad-defence-as-legal-stalling-strategy-1.3902405 |access-date=2019-10-25 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}} Zuma objected to Downer’s involvement in his case and claimed that the retired prosecutor acted unlawfully by leaking information to the media. Downer has previously been accused of leaking information to journalists to benefit his public image and his cases. Zuma instituted a private prosecution in the high court against Downer on 5 September 2022, as well as against journalist Karyn Maughan, but in April 2024 this prosecution was struck off the roll of the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court in Pietermaritzburg, although it might be reinstated if an appeal by Zuma to the Constitutional Court succeeds.{{Cite web |title=Zuma’s private prosecution of Downer, Maughan struck off the roll – but lawyers, supporters cry victory |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-04-17-zumas-private-prosecution-of-downer-maughan-struck-from-roll |access-date=2024-08-08 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}}

Downer lives with his partner, lawyer William de Villiers, in Cape Town. They married in 2009.

• [https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/zuma-after-13-years-downer-is-vindicated-20160430 Zuma: after 13 years Downer is vindicated], [https://www.news24.com/ News24], 30 April 2016
• [http://www.news.uct.ac.za/dailynews/archives/?id=6472 Lessons from the fight against corruption], [http://www.news.uct.ac.za/mondaypaper/ UCT Monday Paper], 19 October 2007
• [http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=2552200 How we nailed Shaik], The Star, 9 June 2005.

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Category:Living people

Category:South African Rhodes Scholars

Category:Stellenbosch University alumni

Category:1956 births

Category:21st-century South African lawyers

Category:South African prosecutors

Category:20th-century South African lawyers

Category:Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford

Category:Alumni of Pretoria Boys High School