The Presidency says President Cyril Ramaphosa has complied with Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s recommendations regarding an investigation into Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan.
Earlier, the office of the Public Protector insisted that the President should take action against Public Enterprises Minister, despite the matter being taken on judicial review.
In June, Mkhwebane said her investigation had found that Gordhan wrongfully approved the early retirement of the then deputy SARS commissioner, Ivan Pillay, in 2010.
Mkhwebane made legally binding recommendations to Ramaphosa to take disciplinary action against Gordhan.
The Public Protector’s Spokesperson, Oupa Segalwe says “In the letter the Public Protector states that the president may have been given wrong legal advice because how he seem to understand is not correct in our view.”
“The Public Protector expects the President to either implement the remedial action or interdict the implementation thereof, then she will be happy with that kind of approach.”
“Her view is that President is given wrong advice. She doesn’t believe the President is being difficult for the sake of it. Hence the letter to President to try help him draw a distinction between a Leduc and an Appeal.”
Ramaphosa says he submitted a written response to Mkhwebane, explaining that Gordhan is taking the report on judicial review.
According to the statement, President Ramaphosa explicitly stated that this written response was in compliance with the Public Protector’s directive for the President to submit an implementation plan within 30 days.
Ramaphosa adds that he drew the Public Protector’s attention to the fact that Minister Gordhan had brought a High Court application four days after the report was released – in which the Minister is seeking an order reviewing and setting aside the findings and recommendations contained in the report.
Below is the Presidency written response to the Public Protector:
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