Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan is seeking legal advice over the Economic Freedom Fighters‘ (EFF) allegation that he refused to answer Parliamentary questions put to him.
On Tuesday, the party laid charges against Gordhan at the Brooklyn Police Station in Pretoria, in response to defamation and crimen injuria charges the minister had laid against EFF leader Julius Malema and his deputy Floyd Shivambu.
The charges are apparently related to the Parliamentary questions to Gordhan.
Gordhan’s spokesperson Adrian Lackay says the allegations are false and part of a campaign to defame the minister further.
“These are not parliamentary questions; they want the minister to answer to them exclusively. We are obtaining sound legal advice (on) whether there is in fact an obligation to do so and to actually legitimise and be part of a broader public campaign that they have run for the better part of the last month to target Minister Gordhan,” he adds.
“What we saw today in Brooklyn (Police Station) is just an extension and a mutation of a public campaign that absolutely has no facts [and] basis. So, for an example they can look as hard as they like for an account in Canada in the name of the minister of public enterprises, they will not find it because it doesn’t exist,” explains Lackay.
