EFF heads to ConCourt to unseal CR17 campaign documents
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) will approach the Constitutional Court to challenge the judgment keeping them from seeing the CR17 campaign records.
This comes after the High Court in Pretoria ruled that the party has no right in law to demand that the bank statements related to President Cyril Ramaphosa's ANC presidential campaign be made public.
The EFF wanted the funders of Ramaphosa’s campaign to be revealed, but the court dismissed the application last week, with costs.
EFF leader Julius Malema told members and supporters he had his reservations about taking the matter further.
“It is the deputy president of the EFF who led the charge and demanded that matter must be taken to the Constitutional Court,” Malema said in a virtual address at the party’s 8th birthday celebration on Monday.
“Majority of the EFF and leaders of the EFF have insisted that this matter must go to the Constitutional Court and with the guidance provided by the deputy president and the collective, we are taking this matters to the Constitutional Court although we suspect what could be the possible outcome given the current arrangement.”
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The party want Ramaphosa to commit to transparency about the flow of money in amid to strengthen democracy and society’s confidence in its leaders.
“Our responsibility as the EFF is to fight the powerful. It is the responsibility of revolutionaries to hold the executive, in particular the President, accountable.
“What kind of a judge can comfortably sit there and say don’t unseal this document even when there are allegations that there are names of judges in those documents.
“The only way the judges can be vindicated is if you release and unseal those documents, let’s see who is in those documents.”
Meanwhile, Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has also applied to the apex court for the rescission of its decision to set aside her report into the CR17 funding.
The public protector found against Ramaphosa in relation to an answer he provided on an R500 000 donation by facilities management company Bosasa to the 2017 presidential campaign.
But the court didn’t agree with Mkhwebane’s report – ruling that it was wrong in law and facts in its finding that Ramaphosa wilfully misled Parliament on the funding for his ANC leadership campaign.
