Publications
Partners
Julius Malema has accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of committing a direct assault on a chapter 9 institution because of the way he is dealing with the matter of Pravin Gordhan following the Public Protector’s ruling against him.
“The office of the Public Protector, regardless of who occupies it must be protected and respected”, he said during a press conference on Tuesday.
The president postponed taking action against the allegations of maladministration levelled at Pravin Gordhan during his time at the South African Revenue Service.
Ramaphosa said that he was taking the finding against him on review, but Malema believed that the president’s decision not to act undermined the office of the Public Protector.
The remedial action given by the Public Protector must be abided to “because the review application does not set aside the remedial action. Only the court of law can do so”, he said
Malema referred to the examples of advocates Nomgcobo Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi, where the president acted following recommendations of the Mokgoro Commission, saying they were in a similar situation to Gordhan.
Read: Jiba, Mrwebi to remain advocates: ConCourt rules
“Ramaphosa dismissed Tom Moyane from his position following the interim report in the Sars commission even after the submission of review application to set aside those recommendations. This brings up questions as to why he is not acting on the Public Protector report,” asserted Malema.
Read: Tom Moyane axed. Now what?
He accused Ramaphosa of treating Gordhan like God and hinted that EFF lawyers would intervene in the matter by taking the president to court to force him to act.
“Ramaphosa does not want to fire Gordhan because white people say so. The application of the review is not sufficient grounds in law to prevent action. Like Zuma, Ramaphosa is not protecting the Constitution,” he said.
