Pravin report spooks Zuma
Court gives president 5 days to explain dossier used to fire Gordhan
President Jacob Zuma has five working days to hand over the “intelligence report” he purportedly used to fire former finance minister Pravin Gordhan.
Judge Bashier Vally ruled in favour of an interlocutory application brought by the DA in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to compel Zuma to disclose records of all data that informed his decision to reshuffle his cabinet.
The DA wanted the data for the main application it is pursuing against Zuma, in which it will seek an order forcing him to review his reshuffle.
Zuma’s decision last month to remove Gordhan and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas sparked protests against him.
Opposition parties accused him of plunging the country’s economy into crisis. Two global rating agencies downgraded SA’s credit rating to junk status following the move.
Steven Budlender SC, for the DA, relied on this argument before Vally to prove the urgency of the application.
He said it was important that Zuma was forced to set aside his decision before another credit rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service, announces its new ratings. “Moody’s has not yet downgraded South Africa, but it indicated after the dismissal decisions that it will decide whether to downgrade.
“It’s placed South Africa on review and it will decide in June 2017 whether to issue a further downgrade.
“We say that that alone makes this [application] urgent,” he said.
He said the DA needed all records that informed Zuma’s decision to prove its irrationality.
Arguing for Zuma, Ishmael Semenya SC told the court the president has already told the DA what informed his decision. He took it after “political judgment” on his part.
Semenya argued that legislation the DA was relying on for its application “does not deal with executive decisions”.
This meant that it cannot be used to compel Zuma to furnish the party with records.
Speaking to journalists after the ruling, federal chairman of the DA James Selfe said Zuma has no choice but to give them the “intelligence report” he used to fire Gordhan.
ANC leaders including Cyril Ramaphosa, Gwede Mantashe and Zweli Mkhize have said Zuma used such a report.
Said Selfe: “I think it is now common cause that there was such a report [and] that that report was used as a reason for firing Gordhan.
If the president does not produce that report, we’d want to know what happened to it and what weight was attached to it.
“The importance of this application is that the president cannot now come and invent reasons now with a benefit of hindsight.”