Gordhan and Mkhwebane to slug it out in court
The high court in Pretoria will this week hear an application by public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan to review and set aside a report by the public protector which found he had acted improperly in approving an early pension payout for former SA Revenue Service (Sars) senior official Ivan Pillay.
The hearing is set down for three days beginning on Wednesday. Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane had recommended that President Cyril Ramaphosa should take disciplinary action against Gordhan for “violating the constitution ” when he used public funds to approve Pillay’s early retirement.
Mkhwebane has described the payment as irregular and that Pillay was not entitled to an early retirement payout.
But Gordhan, who was finance minister at the time, has dismissed Mkhwebane’s report saying it was “riddled with reviewable errors”. He wants the report reviewed, set aside and declared unconstitutional.
Transport minister Fikile Mbalula is expected to release level 1 regulations for the sector this week as the country prepares to reopen its borders on Thursday. He might also announce the list of overseas countries that will be permitted to travel to SA.
Co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has indicated that travel to and from all African countries will be allowed from October 1, but countries with high infection rates from other continents will not be allowed.
Tourism and aviation are some of the biggest casualties of the six-month lockdown, threatening the future of businesses throughout the value chain. Tourism contributes an estimated 8.6% to GDP and supports about 1.5-million people. About a third of the more than 10-million visitors who spent almost R120bn in the country in 2019 came from Europe, with the UK, which imposed new measures to combat the pandemic last week, the biggest market.
The joint subcommittee of the standing and select committees on finance and appropriations — tasked with recommending a candidate for appointment as director of the parliamentary budget office (PBO) — will interview six shortlisted candidates in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
According to the committee the PBO plays a critical role in the provision of “independent, objective and professional advice and analysis to the members of parliament on matters related to budget and other money bills”.
The state capture commission, chaired by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, will on Monday resume hearing evidence relating to the R255m Free State asbestos project, from the province’s human settlements head of department Nthimotse Mokhesi.
The commission will also hear evidence relating to the R1.4bn Free State housing project in 2010, from Martin Tsoametsi, the former adviser to the province’s erstwhile human settlements MEC Mosebenzi Zwane, an ally of the Gupta family.
Zwane told the commission last week that while the appointment of contractors outside an open tender process
— to build RDP houses — was wrong, the blame could not be placed at his door because the plan was given a go-ahead by the then provincial executive council led by premier Ace Magashule.