Publications
Partners
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria will today rule on the urgent application brought by President Cyril Ramaphosa against the Public Protector in the matter relating to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and former deputy tax boss Ivan Pillay.
Ramaphosa brought the urgent application last week Thursday, asking the court to either rule that he has complied with the remedial action ordered by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, or that the remedial action be put on hold pending the outcome of Gordhan's review application.
No timelines or manner of disciplinary action were given to Ramaphosa except for the instruction that he furnish Mkhwebane with an implementation plan to discipline Gordhan. During argument last week, Ramaphosa’s legal team advanced that he had written to the public protector, noting her findings, saying he would discipline Gordhan 30 days after the outcome of his review application.
The case centres around Mkhwebane’s report into Gordhan released on May 24 where she found he had unlawfully approved former deputy commissioner of the South African Revenue Services Ivan Pillay’s early pension in 2010.
Pillay continued to work at SARS after his payout and the tax agency incurred a R1.2m penalty. Gordhan was finance minister at the time.
He announced soon after the release of the report he would take her report on review calling it legally and factually incorrect.
High Stakes
Today's court ruling is a high-stakes one for both parties. The president in his court papers emphasised his commitment to the office of the public protector and her role in holding officials accountable and will not want to be seen as non-compliant with her office.
Mkhwebane, on the other hand, has lost several court cases in recent weeks.
Mkhwebane's legal team argued that the president is taking sides with Gordhan, a close ally of his, over the Chapter 9 Institution.
According to the public protector, Gordhan himself should have brought an interdict against the instructed remedial action.
'Constitutional Crisis'
Mkhwebane opposed the application by the head of state saying her office is being disrespected and Ramaphosa is risking a "constitutional crisis for the sake of servicing one individual from the possible inconvenience of an unwarranted reprimand, warning or even a fine or salary sacrifice".
After a full day of lengthy legal arguments last Thursday, Judge Letty Molopa-Sethosa said she hoped to hand down her ruling in exactly a week. The Public Protector’s spokesperson Oupa Segelwa confirmed to Fin24 that judgment will be delivered on Thursday.
This case is separate to Ramaphosa’s urgent application for a review of Mkhwebane’s findings that he violated the Executive Ethics Code by failing to disclose a donation by Bosasa to his 2017 ANC presidential campaign. However, Mkhwebane in court papers said that when Ramaphosa launched legal action against her instructions for Gordhan's remedial action, he was already aware of the adverse, preliminary findings by her in the Bosasa matter and it is not clear to what extent this application was a “pre-emptive strike”.
