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AS IT HAPPENED | Judgment reserved, ruling expected next week

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Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane speaks during a media briefing in Pretoria. (Photo by Gallo Images/Sunday Times/Thapelo Morebudi)
Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane speaks during a media briefing in Pretoria. (Photo by Gallo Images/Sunday Times/Thapelo Morebudi)
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01 Aug 2019

Judgement is reserved in High Court in Pretoria. Judge says will hopefully be handed down next Thursday, August 8. Court adjourns.

01 Aug 2019

Meanwhile, Adv Mpofu says remedial action by PP is binding, according to the ConCourt.

01 Aug 2019

Adv Le Roux for Gordhan taking issue with arguments that he insulted the office of the PP. Says Gordhan is subject to four investigations by the PP. Have to ask whether she’s acting for political motives, Le Roux argues - Fin contributor, Tehillah Niselow 

01 Aug 2019

Maenetje says the president accepts the binding effect of the remedial action and he is not second-guessing the findings and remedial action of the public protector.

01 Aug 2019

The president's lawyer Adv Hamilton Maenetje is now up for the reply.

01 Aug 2019

Court breaks for 5 minutes. 

01 Aug 2019

Maleka asks that the court dismiss the president's application with costs. 

01 Aug 2019

He reiterates that there is nothing on paper to show that Ramaphosa has engaged with the remedial action of the public protector, to assess if he implements the measure to see if it will bring harm to Gordhan.

01 Aug 2019

Maleka says in this case, the president does not seek to protect any right he has.

The president is trying to protect a possible review remedy Gordhan may have in the future. For that reason he says the basis of his application is that Gordhan's application for review is not frivolous.

He is seeking to protect the review remedy of a third party. On that score he has failed to establish a prima facie right.

01 Aug 2019

Maleka says the president has not come up with a prima facie right worthy of protection. 

01 Aug 2019

The obligation of implementing a remedial action is not based on one's views of its rationality. Maleka recalls a ruling by the SCA that a remedial action of the public protector is binding - whatever your views of its rationality might be.

To relieve yourself of the obligation of the binding nature of the remedial action, you should go to court to challenge the remedial action, Maleka says.

01 Aug 2019

Maleka says the clear possibility that the president will never come to the point where he disciplines Gordhan is "real and alive".

01 Aug 2019

It appears from the president's approach - he does not intend to fulfill the remedial action.

He intends to defer it until the review of the remedial action is finalised.

The deferment will weaken the office of the public protector, Maleka says.

01 Aug 2019

Maleka argues that the president has not complied with the public protector's remedial action. In that he has not implemented an action plan as was required. 

01 Aug 2019

The president must also promote the unity of the nation, but through this litigation - it appears the State is at war with itself as different arms of State are litigating against each other.

The president has failed to live up to the Constitutional mandate to promote unity, says Maleka.

01 Aug 2019

Maleka says according to the provisions of the Constitution - in terms of section 83, the loyalty of President Cyril Ramaphosa must lie with the defense of the Constitution and not with his colleagues in Cabinet. 

01 Aug 2019

EFF leader Julius Malema is attending the hearing.

(Photo: Tehillah Niselow)

<p>EFF leader Julius Malema is attending the hearing.</p><p><em>(Photo: Tehillah Niselow)</em></p>

01 Aug 2019

Adv Vincent Maleka will now make presentations for the EFF.

01 Aug 2019

Speaking of costs, Mpofu says the public protector has "refrained from asking for personal costs". 

He says he has been sent "rude letters" by the president, then adds that "rogue elements" may "use this trick of a so-called review" to delay their punishment.  

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu says that Ramaphosa may have been an "accomplice" to Gordhan's insults, if not a perpetrator. 

01 Aug 2019

The judge asks Mpofu to explain on what ground he is saying that Ramaphosa is insulting the public protector.

Mpofu says that because Ramaphosa is asking for a stay of her remedial action pending a review, he is associating himself with Gordhan's insults. 

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu says the president has a constitutional duty to ensure that her dignity is maintained. 

He says Ramaphosa is going out of his way to "associate" with Gordhan, who has insulted the public protector. 

Mpofu says former President Jacob Zuma didn't insult Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, and speaks against the "vitriolic and gratuitous insults" he says Mkhwebane has been subjected to by Gordhan. 

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu calls the Potterill judgment a mess, says it should "never be referred to again". 

01 Aug 2019

Read the Potterill judgment here

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu now says that the ruling made by Judge Sulet Potterill on Monday is "clearly wrong", "embarrassing". 

Potterill had ruled that Mkhwebane's remedial orders against Gordhan in the so-called SARS 'rogue unit' case be suspended. In her judgment, Potterill established that Gordhan had a prima facie right for the remedial orders to be suspended, pending a court review of her report into the SA Revenue Service "rogue unit".

Mpofu says the correspondence cited at the start of Potterill's judgment had nothing to do with the 'rogue unit' case, but was in fact applicable to the matter being argued on Thursday

'Contradictory and non-sensical': Why Gordhan took round one

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu returns to the point that Ramaphosa brought the application on Thursday when it should have been Gordhan, as it is Gordhan taking the public protector's findings on review. 

 

 

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu says that Ramaphosa and Gordhan could have a "half-hour meeting over a cup of coffee" to implement the remedial findings of the public protector. 

Gordhan has previously denied that he did anything wrong in granting Pillay early retirement in 2010.

After the report was released in May, Gordhan's spokesperson said: "Minister Gordhan takes issue with both the haste and the timing of the release of her report. The complaint involves complex considerations of pension fund laws in as far they relate to public servants. It is doubtful whether due consideration was given to Minister Gordhan's submissions."

Gordhan fights Mkhwebane's report: 'Public Protector has once again erred'

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu says the president can take any form of disciplinary action against Gordhan, says he could give him a talking to or a warning. 

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu says if the order is granted "nothing will stop the bloodbath on our democracy" and we "might as well close up the whole country".  

As he speaks, EFF leader Julius Malema arrives in court. 

01 Aug 2019

He says the office of the public protector would be "killed and blunted" if her remedial action were paused, and question why "everything that we stand for in this democracy must be undermined for the convenience of Mr Gordhan". 

01 Aug 2019

He says Gordhan could "drive to the president's office" and be told, "don't do this again". 

Mpofu says the "entire country" would be "paralysed" if the application to pause the remedial action ordered by Mkhwebane were granted. 

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu, for the public protector, says review and appeals in the matter can take "three to four to five years". 

"So the whole country must be at a standstill for four to five years, until Mr Gordhan and Mr Ramaphosa are out of office to do a simple disciplinary procedure?"

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu notes that Ramaphosa's legal team has not argued that the public protector is guilty of fraud or corruption, or alleged this. 

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu says Ramaphosa's legal team should have argued the prospects of success of the Gordhan review application. 

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu argues the type of interdict being asked for by Ramaphosa's legal team has "never been seen in the world" or "ever in history".

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu says that in previous cases the party that is seeking interior relief is the same party that is seeking review. 

This is in relation to Gordhan taking Mkhwebane's May report on the review, and President Ramaphosa seeking Thursday's application to pause remedial action against Gordhan until the review case is completed. 

He says this is a "misalignment". 

He says Ramaphosa has come to court on "shoddy pretenses". 

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu says the public protector is saying that Ramaphosa has not given an implementation plan that meets her approval. 

01 Aug 2019

Mpofu, for the PP, notes that Ramaphosa needed to submit an implementation plan for how he would be taking remedial action against Gordhan for the approval of the public protector within 30 days of her report being made public. 

He highlights the words "for the approval of the public protector'. 

He says the public protector has not granted such approval. 

This stands in apparent contrast to the argument being made by Ramaphosa's legal team - that the president simply needed to submit an implementation plan, and not that it needed to be expressly approved by Mkhwebane. 

"This must be some kind of a joke," says Mpofu

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