CRUNCH TIME
The race is on for high court to hand down judgments
THE North Gauteng High Court is racing against time to hand down judgment ahead of deadlines set by Public Protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane in her remedial actions.
This is over a report she released on the so-called SA Revenue Services “rogue unit” involving Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and former deputy Sars commissioner Ivan Pillay.
Presiding over the matter, Judge Sulet Potterill yesterday indicated she would prioritise the urgency of the case to ensure involved parties complied with Mkhwebane’s deadlines.
Mkhwebane had given Ramaphosa 30 days within releasing her report to act against Gordhan and National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise until August 4 to implement her orders – an action Judge Potterill said warranted her to act upon urgently.
This comes as the EFF continued to turn up the heat on Gordhan insisting that he be fired from his position and that it will not rest until this happens.
In his usual, no-holds-barred style, EFF leader Julius Malema, who previously described Gordhan as a “constitutional delinquent”, said the minister behaved like “an untouchable politician in South Africa”.
“The EFF goes after the untouchables. Once you create an impression that no one can touch you, we come after you because no one must be above the Constitution or the courts,” he said.
He said President Cyril Ramphosa had to stop being a coward and act against Gordhan.
Malema was addressing the party’s faithful outside the North Gauteng High Court after a showdown inside courtroom 2D in which Mkhwebane and Gordhan faced off over the minister’s urgent application to halt her from enforcing her remedial actions and compelling Ramaphosa to act against him. Malema pointed out that failure to implement remedial actions by the public protector prejudiced the Chapter nine institution.
Malema also ripped into Ramaphosa, saying the opposition party would give him hell and slated some members of the ruling party’s national executive committee, such as Derek Hanekom, whom he accused of plotting alongside the EFF to remove former president Jacob Zuma.
Attempts to obtain Hanekom’s reaction into the allegations were unsuccessful at the time of going to print.
Gordhan’s attorney, advocate Wim Trengove, SC, said Mkhwebane’s orders had to be suspended immediately as his client had taken her report on judicial review and sought for this to be completed first.
In his heads of argument, Gordhan maintained that the report Mkhwebane released early this month was a “product of serious errors of fact, errors of law and demonstrable bias”.
He said Mkwebane’s insistence that her orders be implemented as soon as possible, regardless of the outcome of the review, undermined the rule of law and his constitutional right.
Trengove said contrary to Mkhwebane’s report, Sars never dabbled in national security matters or acted illegally while Gordhan was at the helm.
He further said Mkhwebane’s position that Gordhan had misled Parliament and had violated the executive ethics code was an “irrational finding, devoid of any supporting evidence whatsoever and pointed out that she had failed to afford Gordhan a chance to respond. “It would moreover clearly be unlawful for the president to discipline Minister Gordhan without affording him a hearing,” he said.
In a heated response to insulting remarks allegedly made by Gordhan to Mkhwebane over her report, her attorney, Thabani Masuku, said Gordhan’s stance, that Mkhwebane was a liar and peddler of fake news, was not consistent with his duty to protect the Chapter 9 institution.
“When you accuse the public protector of state capture you are neither complying with a section that says organs of state need to protect the Public Protector’s office. There are legal grounds the findings of PP can be dealt with without calling her names.”
THE sad tale of a 9-year-old boy who suffered severe brain damage at birth and was mostly in a vegetative state during his short life unfolded in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.
His parents approached the court to claim more than R20million from the MEC for Health.
Liz-Marie and Jacob Booyse, the parents of Johannes “JJ” Jacobus Booyse, turned to the court as they felt that their son’s brain damage was caused by the negligence of certain staff at the Tshwane District Hospital.
The court earlier found that the staff who were implicated had been negligent and ordered that the MEC was 100% liable to pay the parents the damages they had suffered as a result.
The distraught parents claimed in their personal capacity for the trauma they had suffered as a result of their son’s severe brain damage. He was also blind, and could not talk or feed himself. He was fed through a tube as he could not swallow his food.
They also claimed for his past and future medical expenses, as well as for assistance to make his life a little easier.
JJ died four days after the lawyers had concluded their arguments in court regarding how much damages should be paid on his behalf.
His death severely lessened the claim by his parents, as they could no longer claim for his future care.
JJ was born on February8, 2010, with brain damage which left him with very little voluntary functional movement. His parents claimed nearly R19.7m on behalf of their son and the suffering he had to endure, and R796000 in their personal capacity.
The lawyers who acted on behalf of the MEC argued that the medical evidence pointed to the fact that JJ was in a permanent vegetative state and therefore he was (before his death) not entitled to general damages regarding his suffering.
The parents, on the other hand, said their son was not permanently in a vegetative state. He had emotions and he had shown emotion.
A professor at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital’s paediatric neurology unit testified that JJ had been under their care for most of his life. His condition deteriorated over time and his epilepsy has become increasingly difficult to control. His ability to interact also deteriorated over time.
He was able to respond to voices and he even smiled at times. But by October last year “there was only an occasional facial grimace, cry or possible smile”.
The parents, on the other hand, said that while their son was severely handicapped, he was not always in a vegetative state. They presented videos to the court; the first from a shower he was given, where “noises of joy” could be heard. The second was when a music video was played for him and it was clear that he was “very happy”.
His father said that during the times JJ was at home, his family “never had a dull moment” with him. He was always friendly, he smiled when he was touched and he loved music. “He always knew when he was home with us and smiled,” the father said.
The court found that the mere fact that JJ had died did not exclude his parents’ right to claim general damages on his behalf for the time he was still alive.
The court last year ordered that the MEC had to pay an interim amount of R1.5m to the parents, to cater for his care until the case was concluded. Lawyers for the MEC said this was enough.
But the court yesterday ordered that the parents were entitled to another R1.5m on behalf of their son, as well as R205 860 to the parents in their personal capacity.