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Ramaphosa’s application to interdict Bosasa report to be heard in High Court

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President Cyril Ramaphosa’s urgent application to interdict the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s remedial action of the Bosasa report will be heard in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday.

A suggestion that donors to the CR17 campaign for the ANC presidency join the court as friends has come to the fore.

At the same time, the ANC which has been in support of Ramaphosa wants the legal process to be concluded speedily.

The party’s national spokesperson Pule Mabe says they want the President to focus on turning the economy around.

“We are concerned. We want to make sure that our President places his energy and focus on turning around the economy. We are looking at these developments with concern of course; it is in our interest that these things are addressed with the necessary speed, so that we could all return and put our attention where it matters the most – which is to lead the people of South Africa.”

Leak of CR17 bank statement

Meanwhile, the Presidency has confirmed that it has information that confidential banking details of those who donated money to the CR17 campaign have been leaked to the media allegedly by Mkhwebane’s office.

The details include bank statements of third parties, which record private and confidential transactions.

Ramaphosa’s lawyers suggest that some of the bank statements may have been obtained unlawfully. They have since approached the courts to request that the documents not be made public.

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga says the damage has already been done. “The information is already leaked and part of it is already in the public discourse. So there will be no purpose served whatsoever in actually sealing this thing. And again, I think that we should be clear about this – if there are those that donated and have a problem with their names being revealed, they should join as friends of the court.”

Credibility

Legal analyst Ulrich Roux says the Public Protector should use legally qualified people to make sure that whatever documents she uses to conduct investigations do not lead to the credibility of her reports being put under scrutiny.

Ramaphosa says the report itself is legally flawed. Mkhwebane found that Ramaphosa misled Parliament about the source of a R500 000 Bosasa donation.

“Unfortunately our Public Protector has found herself in numerous court battles. One wants the Public Protector to be out there to be doing her job and not having to defend every single report that it brings out in court. Unfortunately she has lost a number of legal battles. One would actually start questioning the advice that she is receiving. It’s not a favourable situation to be in. She should be out there doing her job,” defends Roux.

Earlier on Morning Live, Constitutional lawyer Bulelwa Mabasa and political analyst Xolani Dube expressed different views on funding of President Cyril Ramaphosa 2017’s presidential campaign.


-Additional reporting by Natasha Phiri

 

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