Ramaphosa’s challenge against Mkhwebane postponed to Thursday due to no judge

An urgent application lodged by President Cyril Ramaphosa to have the implementation of remedial action ordered by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane against him suspended was to be heard in the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday, but has now been postponed to Thursday.

Public protector spokesperson Oupa Segalwe told eNCA on Tuesday morning that a judge had not been assigned to hear the case by Monday night and it was agreed to give the judge president a chance to do so in order for the case to proceed.

Earlier this month Mkhwebane found that Ramaphosa had deliberately misled parliament about a R500,000 donation from corruption accused Gavin Watson, CEO of Bosasa.

On November 6 last year, Ramaphosa claimed to know nothing about the donation after Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane produced bank statements showing that the money was paid to a bank account belonging to his son, Andile Ramaphosa.

He initially said it was for legitimate consulting work on Andile’s part but later admitted it was a campaign donation, which he claimed not to have had any knowledge of at the time.

READ MORE: Mkhwebane’s report ‘fundamentally and irretrievably flawed’, says Ramaphosa

The public protector found the president to be in breach of the Executive Ethics Code due to the fact that he “should have allowed himself sufficient time to research a well-informed response”.

Ramaphosa announced on July 21 at a media briefing at the Union Buildings in Pretoria that he would be seeking an urgent judicial review of public the report.

According to Ramaphosa, Mkhwebane’s findings were “wrong in law, are irrational and, in some instances, exceed the scope of the powers of the public protector”.

He added that the report “contains numerous factual inaccuracies of a material nature” and was “fundamentally and irretrievably flawed”.

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