Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane on Monday, applied for court interdict to block the release of former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on state capture, hours after Co-operative Governance Minister Des Van Rooyen did the same.
“Minister Zwane has had no option but to now become involved in this matter, as he was not afforded an opportunity to answer allegations levelled against him (contained in a letter he received from the Public Protector) in terms of the Constitution, Public Protector Act and Promotion of Administration of Justice Act,” his office said.
It added that Madonsela could not assure the minister that he was not compromised by the report.
The report contains her findings on allegations that the politically connected Gupta family yielded vast influence over executive decisions and was the last she finalised before leaving office earlier this month.
“The Public Protector cannot confirm or deny if the report, which is now alleged to be in final form, makes any adverse findings against the minister,” ministerial official Ayanda Shezi said.
“It is the minister’s submission that the report was hastily prepared without due regard to his constitutional rights.”
Van Rooyen takes a similar stance in documents he filed in court on Monday, in a bid to block the release of the report, saying he would suffer “grave harm” if the report contained adverse findings which he was not given an opportunity to refute.
Van Rooyen first went to court to block Madonsela’s report a week and a half ago, arguing that she had given him only one day to respond to damning allegations that he had used his four days as finance minister last December, to pull strings for the rich and politically connected Gupta family.
However, the minister withdrew the application, which was due to be heard along with a separate one by President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday. The president is also seeking a court order that the report be withheld.
At the time, Van Rooyen said he did so because Madonsela assured him that she had not made any adverse findings against him.
Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane said the ministers were simply seeking to delay Tuesday’s court proceedings for as long as possible.
“These interdicts are nothing more than carefully calculated attempts to delay matters and drag out the inevitable release of the Public Protector’s report,” he said.
“Both ministers are well known to be Gupta proxies, and therefore their scrambling attempts to try discredit this report is no doubt due to the fact that they are both implicated in the report.
“In fact, the late joining by both ministers is a clear indication that their only intention is to delay tomorrow’s proceedings as far as possible.”
He said the DA’s legal team would argue that all the applications be dismissed.
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