The North Gauteng High Court has granted President Cyril Ramaphosa an interim interdict against the implementation of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s remedial actions against him.
The court granted the order on Monday morning after Mkhwebane indicated that she would not oppose it.
The interdict stays the implementation of the remedial actions pending the outcome of Ramaphosa’s review application to set aside Mkhwebane’s report.
Notably, the court directed that the review application “must be dealt with on an expedited basis.”
It directed the parties involved to agree on a date for the hearing, failure to which the court’s Deputy Judge President will set a date.
‘Misled Parliament’
The matter relates to Mkhwebane’s report on whether or not Ramaphosa misled Parliament in a reply he gave about a R500,000 donation by Bosasa ex-CEO Gavin Watson to the CR17 campaign.
Mkhwebane found that Ramaphosa had misled Parliament and violated the Executive Code of Ethics by failing to declare CR17 campaign donations.
She also found that Ramaphosa had exposed himself to a risk of conflict of interest by accepting donations.
Further, she found that there was suspicion of money laundering in the way the campaign funds were transferred within various entities.
The president said Mkhwebane’s report is “legally and factually” flawed and has taken it on review.