Lerato Mbhiza
THE civil matter between businessman Mthunzi Mdwaba’s Thuja Holdings and the Department of Employment and Labour has been postponed to January 25.
Mdwaba appeared in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday in a matter brought by labour Minister Thulas Nxesi in November on an urgent basis to have the contentious Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and Thuja Holdings R5-billion job-creation deal set aside.
Nxesi raised concerns about the deal’s legality and validity, arguing that it was concluded in breach of the Public Finance Management
In a statement released on X by Thuja Holding, Mdwaba’s lawyers requested a postponement so they could prepare a response to the minister’s allegations as mentioned in his affidavit.
Mdwaba’s attorney, Khumisi Kganare said the minister’s papers were not served to his client properly.
“The timelines that were given to all the respondents were not practical because we did not agree we had to come get a directive from the high court to say let’s work on a pre-hearing timetable that will regulate how and when answering papers are going to be filed by the respondents.
“There’s about eight respondents in this matter. [The timetable will state] also until when the minister will be given an opportunity to file his replying affidavit and everything else that follows like your heads of arguments,” he said.
Kganare said the judge did not want to deal with the issue of urgency regarding the application.
“She said she will leave it for the next judge to determine that.”
The attorney also confirmed that no interdict was issued for the minister.
“What was problematic for our client was that the minister also wanted a gag order against him so we had to also deal with that issue to say if there is a gag order then let it go two ways, meaning it must apply to all litigants involved or we have a situation where there is no gag order at all.
“There’s a general rule that applies to litigants when a matter is under judicial consideration that in this instance you are not allowed, as a litigant, to go public in respect of the merits of the case.
“Now we have a directive from the high court that says there’s no gag order against our client… in fact there’s no gag order against everyone involved so we expect the sub judice rule to apply to everyone,” he added.
Mdwaba has alleged that two of his counsel have been receiving deaths from callers using an unknown number.
In the papers Nxesi filed last month he sought to set aside the contract and argued that the agreement was in breach of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) as it was signed without the knowledge of the National Treasury or Cabinet
INSIDE POLITICS
