Clarity on President Zuma and the banks versus Oakbay court case

29 March 2017

The Presidency wishes to clarify the involvement of President Jacob Zuma in the matter before the North Gauteng High Court.

The main applicant in the matter is the Minister of Finance. The President was cited as an interested party on the basis that he would be directly affected by the declaratory order that is sought by the 17th respondent, Standard Bank.

Standard Bank was seeking a relief that would affect the President and other members of the Cabinet without properly joining them as parties in the proceedings.

For instance, the court would grant an order extending to the Presidency or Cabinet compelling them to do or not to do certain things when they would not have been parties to the proceedings.

An affidavit was then placed before court to place on record  the correspondence between the state attorney and Standard Bank attorneys to show the attempts of the Presidency to avoid the extended order they were seeking and the fact that we were not properly joined and should not be party to the proceedings, in the first place.

In their response Standard Bank made it clear that they intended to persist with the relief they were seeking notwithstanding the fact that The Presidency had indicated to them that without a proper joinder application we were not a party to the proceedings.

The order they were seeking is " it is declared that no member of the National Executive of Government including the President and all members of Cabinet, acting of their own accord and or for and on behalf of Cabinet, is empowered to intervene in any manner whatsoever in any decision taken by the 17th respondent to terminate its banking relationships with Oakbay Investments Proprietary Limited and its associated entities."

The court ruled that the Presidency is not before court but we could keep a watching brief.

Issued by Bongani Ngqulunga on behalf of the Presidencey, 29 March 2017