A South African High Court on Tuesday ruled in favour of President Cyril Ramaphosa in a case in which he is being accused by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane of lying to Parliament.
The case concerned a judicial review on Mkhwebane’s report on the funding of Ramaphosa’s ruling African National Congress party in 2017.
The president was running for the ANC leadership and during this period he is said to have received contributions from the private sector.
When the opposition brought up the issue in the House, Ramaphosa’s initial explanation of the source of one of his contributions was dismissed by lawmakers, who accused him of not telling the truth.
This led the Public Protector to investigate the president on allegations of misleading Parliament, the non-disclosure of financial donors, and suspicions of money-laundering.
But Justice Keoagile Elias Matojane called attention to the Public Protector’s changing of the wording of the Executive Ethics Code which legislates against “wilfully” misleading parliament to “deliberately”.
The court set aside Mkhwebane’s finding that the president misled Parliament as “fatally flawed” and said it warranted review.
“It was totally irrational for the Public Protector to make a finding that President misled Parliament based on the fact that he should not have answered the question until he determined the facts,” Matojane said.
The court further found that the Public Protector did not have jurisdiction to investigate Ramaphosa’s party campaign and the president did not have a duty to disclose his contributors.
NM/jn/APA