Pretoria - The Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law were jumping the gun by turning to the court to have National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) boss Shaun Abrahams and two other officials suspended, according to President Jacob Zuma.
He said he was already dealing with the matter and was in fact the only person who could decide how to deal with it.
Abrahams, Gauteng Director of Public Prosecutions Sibongile Mzinyathi and acting special director of public prosecutions Dr Torie Pretorius were instrumental in bringing charges against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan. Zuma issued them with letters this week giving them until the end of this month to state why they shouldn't be suspended, pending an inquiry into their fitness to hold office.
He said he could only make a decision in this regard once they had submitted their reasons. “The process has not been completed as yet. This matter is clearly premature as I have not yet completed the process of receiving representations and have not yet considered all the relevant facts and circumstances.”
Zuma made these submissions in his answering affidavit to the urgent application in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to have the trio suspended and for Zuma to hold an enquiry into their fitness to hold office. The application was scheduled to be heard next week.
The two organisations indicated that they would go ahead with the application even though Zuma had placed the three on terms.
They claimed Abrahams brought the office of the NPA into disrepute following the criminal charges against Gordhan, Oupa Magashula and Ivan Pillay, which were later withdrawn. The applicants stated that the reputation of the NPA and the rule of law were at risk if Abrahams continued holding office.
But in his affidavit, Zuma said apart from the matter not being urgent, it was an abuse of the court process and at best for the applicants, premature, as he was dealing with the situation.
“To ask the courts to substitute my decision and make that decisions themselves would amount to a breach of the rule of law.”
He accused the applicants of trying to govern through the courts. “The applicants are inviting the court to run the country through the courts.” He said the courts should not interfere in an ongoing process.
Zuma made it clear that until he received all the facts and circumstances surrounding the Gordhan saga from Abrahams and the two officials, neither he nor the courts were in a position to judge their fitness to hold office.
Abrahams, in his papers, accused the applicants of sour grapes. “They are simply unhappy with the fact that a decision was made to prosecute the minister,” he said.
Pretoria News