Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma has launched an urgent application with the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Thursday, for an interdict to prevent outgoing Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, from releasing her findings into allegations of state capture.
"I can confirm that the application for an urgent court interdict was done at the North Gauteng High Court," Zuma's spokesman Bongani Ngqulunga told ANA on Thursday.
The Public Protector's office said the court would hear the application next Tuesday.
Madonsela's seven-year term at the helm of the chapter nine institution ends on Friday. Her race against time to complete the investigation, triggered by claims that the Gupta family sought to determine Cabinet appointments, has been frustrated by Zuma who said this week that her "hurry" to complete the probe was misplaced.
The president on Tuesday demanded an undertaking from Madonsela that she would not conclude the investigation without giving him a chance to interview all witnesses who may have implicated him. Madonsela said she would not do so and instead urged the president to respond to the questions she had put to him in the course of the probe.
She said contrary to his claim that he had been ill-prepared when they met for the purposes of the investigation last week, he had known since late March which questions she needed him to answer. Madonsela added that the meeting last Thursday marked the first time that Zuma had demanded to question other witnesses and read their evidence.
"The Public Protector would like to report that President Jacob Zuma was afforded a proper opportunity to tender his evidence since 22 March 2016," she said, adding that two days after their meeting last week, she had duly supplied him with copies of all evidence implicating his in the state capture scandal.
Regarding his demand that his lawyer be allowed to question all witnesses, she added: "A letter has been prepared to advise the president to submit questions that will be put to witnesses on his behalf."
Madonsela's office said on Thursday that she had still not received any reply to the questions put to him. It said it had yet to decide how to deal with Zuma's application for an interdict and was consulting its legal team.
The Democratic Alliance said Zuma's court application was indicative of a man with much to hide.
"President Jacob Zuma's intention to seek an interdict against the release of the Public Protector's preliminary report into state capture shows that he is becoming increasingly worried about what is contained in this report, and desperate to stop it from being made public," DA leader Mmusi Maimane said.
"This is plainly the abuse of state resources in order to evade accountability."
Maimane said it also meant the president had learnt nothing from the Constitutional Court ruling against him earlier this year for failing to implement Madonsela's directive that he repay state funds spent on adding luxuries to his Nkandla home. He urged the African National Congress (ANC) caucus in Parliament to call him to order.
The ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu this week told media that the caucus accepted that the ANC majority had erred in approving a report on the Nkandla project by Police Minister Nathi Nhleko which directly contradicted Madonsela's findings and sought to absolve Zuma.
"The DA looks forward to the ANC's parliamentary caucus taking swift action against Jacob Zuma, given their recent apology for the handling of the Nkandla matter, and new-found and belated respect for the institution of the Public Protector."
African News Agency