South Africa’s militant opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on Wednesday vowed to appeal the dismissal of a High Court case that exonerated President Cyril Ramaphosa from “misleading” parliament.
The High Court on Tuesday ruled that the Public Protector (Ombudsman) Busisiwe Mkhwebane had no case when she found that the president had lied to parliament about details of his 2017 party presidential campaign.
Not so fast, said the EFF, adding that “the legal battle around the party campaign funding is not over.”
While the EFF did not indicate when it would file the appeal, the presidency insisted that the court was in the right to dismiss the Ombudsman’s charges because the president did nothing wrong.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Khusela Diko said: “There was no unlawful activity that the president would have participated in and that, by no stretch of the imagination or law, can you come to that conclusion as the Public Protector did.”
Diko added: “We welcome this judgment. We believe it brings finality to the matter. The president remains committed to honest and effective governance.”
NM/jn/APA