Presidency welcomes High Court ruling on #CR17
The presidency has welcomed the decision by the High Court in Pretoria to set aside Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s investigation into President Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign to be African National Congress (ANC) leader.
In a scathing judgment, a full Bench of the court described Mkhwebane as having no regard for the law and found that she recklessly acted outside of her powers.
In her 2019 report, Mkwebane found that Ramaphosa deliberately misled Parliament when he answered a question on a R500 000 donation to the campaign from late Bosasa boss Gavin Watson.
She found that Ramaphosa breached the executive code of ethics and that there was a reasonable suspicion of money laundering.
But the court has now set aside the findings.
The presidency’s Khusela Diko says the court has reaffirmed what the president has repeatedly said.
“The court reaffirmed the president's assertion that there was no factual basis for the public protector's finding that the president misled Parliament concerning a donation made to the CR17 campaign from Mr Gavin Watson of African Global Operations (formerly Bosasa).”
Diko says the presidency also welcomes the court’s decision that Mkhwebane had no jurisdiction to investigate the CR17 campaign.
“The president was not obliged to make disclosure of the donations received by the CR17 campaign and the public protector had no foundation in fact and in law to arrive at a conclusion that the president had involved himself in unlawful activities.”
