Two legal lobby groups say they might sue Abrahams over Gordhan
PRETORIA: National prosecuting boss Shaun Abrahams has ordered further investigation into the fraud case against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, according to court papers filed by Freedom Under Law and the Helen Suzman Foundation.
The two legal lobby groups said in an affidavit to the Pretoria High Court that Abrahams made the claim last Friday in reply to a letter demanding that he withdraw fraud and theft charges against Gordhan immediately.
“The very fact that he has sought to institute further investigations shows there is insufficient evidence to sustain the charges,” the court papers filed early this week stated.
Abrahams’s reply to the two groups also stressed that he did not personally take the decision to charge the finance minister over his decision to grant early retirement with full benefits to former Sars deputy commissioner Pillay in 2014.
“It also reiterated that the NDPP did not take the decision to prosecute,” the foundation said, adding that the response was “telling”.
Abrahams is on record as saying the decision to prosecute the finance minister was in fact taken by Torie Pretorius, acting special director of public prosecutions and head of the priority crimes litigation unit, in consultation with the North Gauteng director of Ivan public prosecutions, Sibongile Mzinyathi.
The two groups argued in the affidavit that Abrahams had ample time to consider the case before announcing on October 11 that Gordhan would be charged, and that he could not evade responsibility for the decision to proceed as he did not merely passively allow it but defended it.
At the media briefing where he made the announcement, Abrahams rubbished Gordhan’s remark to the media that the probe against him was “political mischief”.
“He sought the limelight at the press conference, taking centre stage vehemently to defend the charges, extolling to the world that the NPA had acted correctly, and without fear or favour, in preferring the charges and that the minister’s allegations could not ‘be further from the truth’,” FUL and the foundation said.
They went on to suggest that they could bring separate legal action against Abrahams in future.
“The applicants reserve their right to pursue Mr Abrahams in this respect in due course.”
Turning to the merit of the charges Gordhan is facing, the two groups described these as “hopeless” and “inchoate”, and argued that it forced the conclusion that the NPA acted to harass Gordhan for political reasons.
They argued that the minister had acted in full compliance with the law when he approved Pillay’s retirement, and the penalty that the revenue service incurred for releasing him from service five years early on full pension.
Gordhan has rejected Abrahams’s urging to make submissions to have the charges against him reviewed, saying he did not believe that he would be given a fair hearing.
He is due to appear in court on November 2.
Today he will table the medium-term budget policy statement in Parliament.