State capture probe on hold

The High Court in Pretoria has ruled that it would not be in the interest of justice to force President Jacob Zuma to immediately appoint a commission of inquiry into state capture.

Judge Motsamai Makume granted an order, staying an application by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to force the president to comply with a directive by former public protector Thuli Madonsela in her state capture report, pending the finalisation of the president’s legal bid to set aside the remedial action. The review will be heard on October 23.

The president has attacked the remedial action as unconstitutional, dictatorial, offending the separation of powers doctrine and intruding into the sphere of his exclusive executive powers to appoint commissions of inquiry.

Madonsela directed that the president must appoint a commission of inquiry into state capture, but that the chief justice must select the presiding judge.

Makume said the review application raised legal and constitutional issues and was a matter of great public interest on which this court still had to pronounce.

“To compel the president at this stage will not only be tantamount to denying him a hearing or his day in court but it may also be understood to mean that the public protector powers are unassailable irrespective of the content of her decision. That cannot be correct.

“In my view, it will be in the best interest of justice to grant the president a stay of the implementation of the remedial action pending a decision in the review application,” he said.

DA federal executive chairman James Selfe said the question still remained why Zuma had not yet appointed a commission despite making several promises to do so.

“We find a pattern in the president’s actions of constantly frustrating the orders of the public protector, as was the case with Nkandla. We would like this review application to be heard as quickly as possible so that we can get to the bottom of what happened in the state capture.”