GORDHAN IN ‘JUDICIAL CAPTURE’
● EFF opens corruption case against minister
THE EFF, which opened a case of corruption against Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan yesterday, said the minister should never have discussed with Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng potential candidates for a vacancy on the bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
Justice Mogoeng has suggested that Gordhan conducted himself improperly at their meeting in 2016 by asking how KwaZulu-Natal High Court Judge Dhayanithie (Dhaya) Pillay had fared in her interview for the position of SCA judge.
On Tuesday, Pillay was again interviewed by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) for a Constitutional Court vacancy.
The judge did not make the shortlist of five candidates, whose names have been handed to President Cyril Ramaphosa to fill two vacancies at the Constitutional Court.
Yesterday, Gordhan issued a statement denying that he had tried to influence the appointment of Pillay, whom he acknowledges as a friend, to the SCA.
EFF spokesperson Vuyani Pambo, responding to Gordhan’s statement, said if the minister “truly respects the independence of the chief justice, he would not have asked such a question, which compromises and delegitimises the integrity of the selection process”.
“In fact, knowing that he is friends with Judge Dhaya Pillay, he should have stayed far from the chief justice, especially at such a time when his friend is before the chief justice for interviews.
“Furthermore, the conduct of Gordhan is consistent with his previous self-induced amnesia as to his meeting with the Gupta family.
“Why was he asking the chief justice such a question and even making it apparent that Pillay is his friend if not to unduly influence the process?” Pambo said.
Judge Pillay, who is currently in an acting position at the Constitutional Court, issued a judgment in 2019 in the defamation case between former president Jacob Zuma and former minister Derek Hanekom.
Zuma lost the case.
On Tuesday, Judge Pillay was questioned about having lunch at Zuma’s home in Nkandla and her relationship with Gordhan and Hanekom.
The judge’s denial of a possible conflict of interest did not convince EFF leader Julius Malema. He pressed her on whether she did not see a problem with a judge being friends with a politician and whether that could be described as “judicial capture”.
Yesterday, EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu, accompanied by senior party members, opened a case of corruption against Gordhan at the Hillbrow Police Station.
Gordhan was accused of “trying to influence the appointment of his friend, KZN Judge Pillay”.
In Gordhan’s letter submitted to the JSC’s secretary yesterday, he denied ever influencing Justice Mogoeng, adding that he respects Justice Mogoeng’s independence.
According to Gordhan, Justice Mogoeng agreed to meet him in Cape Town on April 6, 2016 to discuss National Treasury issues.
Regarding his friendship with Judge Pillay, Gordhan stated: “Judge Pillay is a friend and comrade of long standing. She was also the partner of the late Mr Yunus Mahomed (who passed away in 2008), a close comrade in the anti-apartheid struggle and with whom I worked in the formation of civics, in the UDF and in the ANC underground in the 1970s and 1980s.”
He maintained that upon the completion of the cordial discussion on the matter for which the meeting in question was requested, he had in passing referred to Judge Pillay’s interview with the JSC and Justice Mogoeng had responded, and he (Gordhan) later left.