Urgent application to have charges against Gordhan set aside

23 October 2016 - 16:30 By TMG Digital
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Attorneys acting for Freedom Under Law and the Helen Suzman Foundation served an urgent application on Sunday to have the recent criminal charges against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan set aside.

This is after the two organisations invited National Director of Public Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams to furnish them with more information about the charges‚ or to withdraw them voluntarily‚ which he failed to do‚ despite being given a week’s notice‚ they said.

“The charges are obviously without foundation. Relating to the early retirement and subsequent re-employment of Ivan Pillay‚ a former Deputy Commissioner of SARS‚ they are completely invalid‚ both legally and on any plausible reading of the facts.

“At best‚ the charges reveal dizzying incompetence at the NPA and the Hawks. At worst‚ they confirm our suspicions: that the criminal justice system is being undermined to serve particular political interests‚” FUL and the HSF said in a statement.

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They added that their application was not seeking to protect particular individuals‚ or to take any side in factional battles.

“It is about protecting the machinery of the state from being undermined for malign purposes‚ thereby also preventing further damage to our fragile economy at a sensitive time.

“The people of South Africa have a right to a criminal justice system that works for‚ not against‚ them. We are going to court to vindicate that right.”

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