Advocate Dali Mpofu has come down hard on President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying the president has gone out of his way to associate himself with vitriolic and gratuitous insults against Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.
Mpofu was addressing the court during the heads of arguments proceedings Thursday in a bitter legal feud between Mkhwebane and Ramaphosa.
Mpofu, representing the Economic Freedom Fighters, added that it has become fashionable in South Africa to insult the Public Protector.
In an application to suspend remedial action against him, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan’s dubbed Mkhwebane a “proponent of State Capture… Part of the defenders of corruption.”
Ramaphosa filed an application to interdict Mkhwebane’s remedial action which instructed him to discipline Pravin Gordhan.
Ramaphosa’s counsel, represented by Advocate Hamilton Manenje, argued that the stay of the remedial action should be granted in the interest of justice.
Manenje added that if the court granted the president’s application for a stay of the remedial action, pending Gordhan’s court review of the public protector’s report, the court will be upholding the executive function.
He further argued that the suspension of the remedial action does not weaken the public protector’s office, saying the president was acting in line with the law by first waiting for the outcome of Gordhan’s review application before making a final determination.
Manenje also argued that the president had no power to discipline Gordhan.
Not so said Mpofu. Quoting the Crawford von Abo versus President of the Republic of SA in 2009, Mpofu argued that it was incorrect to say the president can’t discipline the ministers.
“President’s bid to stay remedial action against Gordhan will result in a ‘bloodbath’ of SA’s democracy.”
Advocate Dali Mpofu
Mpofu said, according to the Constitution, the president is empowered to appoint ministers, assign powers and functions, and has the authority to dismiss them.
“I am going to say this My Lady to get it off my chest and I am going to say it high. It will never, never happen that a court will rule that a President doesn’t have powers to discipline a minister,” Mpofu argued.
“The entire country must be paralysed, the office of the public protector must be killed and blunted and everything we stand for in this democracy must be undermined for the convenience of Mr Gordhan, one man?”
Mpofu further argued that the president has not complied with the public protector’s remedial order by providing her with an implementation plan within 30 days of how he would take action against Gordhan.
He rubbished Ramaphosa’s argument that he complied with public protector’s remedial action by providing her with an implementation plan of action he would take against Gordhan.
Mpofu argued that Mkhwebane was the only person who could approve that plan, and she did not.
President Ramaphosa could not take any disciplinary action against her client until the review of the public protector’s report was finally determined, argued Advocate Michelle Le Roux acting for Gordhan.
Le Roux pointed out that the EFF’s insistence on the implementation of the public protector’s remedial order against Gordhan ignored the fact that there was a pending review.
She added that the EFF’s affidavit almost sounded like the public protector was not subject to scrutiny and review.
Judgement on the matter has been reserved until August 8.
