Tshwane – The final report on investigations into allegations of state capture by the wealthy Gupta family is in Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete’s safekeeping, outgoing Public Protector Thuli Madonsela said on Friday.
“Clause B [of Friday’s High Court ruling by Judge Dawie Fourie] says the report shall be preserved and kept in safekeeping. That is not an interim report, that is my final report,” Madonsela said at a briefing at Public Protector House in Pretoria.
“We have given it to the Speaker of Parliament for safekeeping.”
Earlier on Friday, the High Court in Pretoria heard that Madonsela would not be releasing her much anticipated report on allegations of state capture.
Advocate Azhar Bham, for the Public Protector, told Judge Fourie that even though the report has been finalised and signed off, Madonsela had taken the decision not to release it on Friday “only as a courtesy to the court”.
Fourie issued a “preservation order”, which means the findings of the report cannot be public and the report has to be kept in “safekeeping”. He postponed the matte to November 1.
Opposition parties including the Congress of the People, Democratic Alliance, Economic Freedom Fighters and the United Democratic Movement had joined the court case, opposing Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des van Rooyen’s applications to interdict Madonsela from releasing the report on state capture.
The EFF, through its attorney Tembeka Ngcukaitobi urged the court to compel Madonsela to release the report immediately.
Madonsela, who is leaving office Friday, at the end of her seven-year term, had earlier in the week announced that she would release her preliminary report into allegations of “state capture” by the controversial Gupta family.
The Guptas have been accused of influencing the appointment of cabinet ministers — a prerogative of the president — and other senior government officials in order to benefit their business concerns.
President Jacob Zuma, who has strong ties to the wealthy Gupta family, on Thursday applied for an interdict to halt the release of the report. This came three days after he demanded an undertaking from Madonsela that she would not wrap up her investigation until he had been allowed to question other witnesses in the investigation.
The president asked for more time and complained that he was given two days’ notice before Madonsela interviewed him last Thursday, and was expected to give evidence on matters of which he was not forewarned when she requested the meeting.
Madonsela had indicated that she would release the report on Friday, but has since said on advice from her legal team she would not be doing so.
She, however, insists Zuma has had enough time, since March 22 this year, to answer her questions on the Gupta’s alleged influence on the State.
Zuma and Van Rooyen have come under fire for interdicting Madonsela, with political parties and analysts accusing them of panicking and applying delaying tactics in the midst of possible damning findings.
African News Agency