Court to hear 'state capture' interdict bid on Nov 1

14 October 2016

Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma's and Local Government Minister Des Van Rooyen’s application to

interdict the Public Protector’s "state capture”"report will be heard on November 1.

This meant that Thuli Madonsela would not release the interim report on Friday. She would, however, still brief media about her other reports.

Van Rooyen's interdict hearing would merge with a separate bid by Zuma and be heard in the High Court in Pretoria on November 1. The EFF, UDM and Cope were opposing this and would ask the court for an order to preserve the report.

The EFF earlier told the court it was concerned that the much-anticipated report might never be made public, as Madonsela was leaving office at the close of business on Friday.

Earlier, Madonsela’s lawyer confirmed to the court that the report would not be released on Friday, and that it contained no findings against Van Rooyen.

Van Rooyen argued in court papers that he was only given 24 hours to respond to "adverse findings" against him, violating his constitutional rights to respond to the allegations.

Papers he placed before the court contain Madonsela’s questions to him. They contain allegations that Van Rooyen's advisers influenced the awarding of a state contract to the Guptas while he was finance minister for four days, in December last year.

Mandonsela had been expected to release the first part of her probe into allegations that the Gupta family influence Zuma's appointment of Cabinet ministers.

Zuma has in the past referred to the Gupta family as his friends. His son Duduzane did business with them.

The second leg of Madonsela's investigation was whether corruption was involved in the Cabinet’s attempt to stop the country’s major banks from closing the accounts of the Gupta’s holding company, Oakbay Investments.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.