With less than 30 days to go before Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng ends his tenure, Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele was unable to provide clarity on whether the process to select a new chief justice has begun.
Gungubele addressed the media ahead of the start of the three-day Cabinet lekgotla on Tuesday.
He said the lekgotla will be attended by the president, deputy president, ministers, premiers and other stakeholders to discuss various issues including state of the country from the point of economic growth, ratio of investment to GDP, level of poverty, the number of people at work and a number of related issues, and of course the issues of inequality, and unemployment.
Responding to a question on the status of the selection process of the new chief justice, Gungubele said: “On the issue of the new chief justice, I didn't give myself an opportunity to update myself on that.”
Gungubele could not confirm whether President Cyril Ramaphosa was aware of National Commissioner Arthur Fraser’s decision to place former president Jacob Zuma on medical parole.
He said on that issue he said with the power vested in Fraser, he had the power to exercise that authority. “If there are any wrongdoings in that, we expect the normal institutions to deal with that.”
Lekgotla will also reflect on the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the potential growth of South Africa’s economy.
In an effort to encourage people to get vaccinated, Gungubele said the Cabinet is engaged with a lot of innovative packages: “A vaccine passport has been considered to make sure that people start attending soccer matches like they do overseas.
“We are looking at how the vaccine passport can assist us with that – one way is a digitised vaccine passport. The card one can be very problematic,” he said.
Political Bureau