President Cyril Ramaphosa‘s decision to wait before taking any decision against Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, in is line with the law.
This is according to Advocate Hamilton Maneje, who is arguing for Ramaphosa on whether he is obliged to act on the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s instruction to take action against Gordhan over his decision to approve the early retirement of former South African Revenue Service (SARS) Deputy Commissioner, Ivan Pillay, in 2010.
The High Court in Pretoria is currently hearing the President’s urgent interdict against the Public Protector’s recommended remedial action.
Ramaphosa and Mkhwebane are settling their differences in the High Court in Pretoria over the matter which relates to a report the Public Protector released in May.
Maneje says Ramaphosa is in full compliance with the Public Protector’s recommendation.
“There is absolute justification for the waiting not just on the timing but on the form of disciplinary action. Now in this regard my Lady this court has already determined that President’s conduct of awaiting the outcome of the review application is a sensible one, and is in line with the law of the land. In other words, the President has acted in line with the law. The argument we face is that because the Public Protector has not approved the implementation plan, there is no implementation plan and theirs is no compliance; and because there’s not disciplinary action there is no compliance both of them fail my lady.”
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