Court cuts to the chase in Gupta case

The first day of the highly charged court battle that has Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan pitted against the Gupta family over the closure of their Oakbay company and other accounts, had the High Court in Pretoria dispose swiftly of the extraneous politics to move on to the key legal issue: whether the government is permitted to intervene in matters between banks and clients.

Gordhan approached the court in 2016 for a declaratory order stating that he could not intervene, after being pressured to do so by the Cabinet and Oakbay executives. His move was widely interpreted as an attempt to put an end to the lobbying and shine a light on the Guptas’ financial affairs.

However, by the time of Tuesday’s hearing, all parties agreed that Gordhan did not have the power to intervene. The court, therefore, attempted to persuade the parties to reach a settlement.

But Jeremy Gauntlett SC, for Gordhan, told the court although parties agreed the minister could not intervene, there was no agreement on a declarator

and therefore there could be no settlement.

Before argument began, several parts of several applications were struck down by the court. The first order of business was an application by President Jacob Zuma to be added as an “interested party”. This was dismissed by the court, which said he had not followed proper procedure and there was no point in considering his application.

The implication of this decision is that the court could still grant the extended relief sought by Standard Bank, which in its affidavit asked that the declaratory order should specifically stop the president or any member of his Cabinet from interfering in relationships between banks and their clients.

The high court also dealt with other strike-out applications.

The first, brought by Oakbay, asked the court to strike out the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) certificate which detailed 72 “suspicious” transactions on Gupta-linked accounts. The certificate had formed part of Gordhan’s founding affidavit.

Cedric Puckrin SC, for the company, argued that the certificate was not relevant to the case, while Gauntlett argued that the certificate showed the seriousness of the matter.

The court agreed with Oakbay that the FIC certificate was not relevant to the application. The ruling means that details of the transactions, totalling about R6.4bn, will not be made public.

In what could be seen as another victory for the Guptas, an affidavit submitted by Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas is also not to form part of the court matter. The affidavit detailed a meeting between Jonas and the Guptas where the deputy minister claimed he was offered a promotion and R600m to bring business to the family.

The court also found in favour of Gordhan’s strike-out application against allegations that there was a political motive for bringing the application. Gordhan scored another victory when Oakbay agreed to withdraw its allegation that the minister had colluded with the banks against the Guptas.

Arguments regarding Gordhan’s declaratory order will continue on Wednesday.