Zuma withdraws application to block state capture report
President Jacob Zuma’s lawyers have withdrawn his case looking to interdict the release of a state capture report by former Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela.
This follows several parties – including the DA, EFF, UDM and COPE – being granted permission by the North Gauteng High Court to intervene in the case on Tuesday.
According to reports from court on Wednesday, the president’s legal team gave notice that they would be withdrawing the case. Wednesday’s proceedings were to be when they would argue the merits of being granted an interdict.
President Zuma, along with cooperative governance minister, Des van Rooyen, and mining minister Mosebenzi Zwane brought an application to block Madonsela’s report into allegations of state capture.
The basis for the president’s case was that, as an implicated person in the investigation, he was not granted a fair opportunity to have his say on allegations of state capture, or to cross-examine witnesses who have made allegations against him.
Similar grounds were mentioned by van Rooyen and Zwane.
According to Zuma’s lawyers, the interdict was not seeking to ban the report, but rather to grant the president a period of two months to have his say in response to the allegations contained within the report.
Opposition parties on Tuesday argued that the Public Protector’s report has been finalised, and thus is a closed matter which must be published. The DA’s legal team said that the president – or any other complainants – could take the report on review, after it has been published.
Van Rooyen’s application was to be heard with Zuma’s, but because of its late entry into the matter – and van Rooyen’s legal team being unprepared – it was struck off the roll as not being urgent.
Van Rooyen wanted all references to him in the report, to be redacted.
The latest development in the saga means that only one other court bid – Zwane’s – lies in the way of the report being published.
Zwane’s application accuses Madonsela of having an ulterior motive in producing the report, which implicates him in a number of dubious activities relating to the Gupta family and its businesses.
The mining minister wants the report to be barred from being published, and set aside completely.
More on state capture
Zuma doesn’t want to ban the state capture report – he just wants 2 months to respond
Van Rooyen makes second attempt to block state capture report
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