Gordhan vs Malema, Shivambu: Case moved to High Court
11 February 2019
State Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan's Equality Court challenge against EFF leader Julius Malema and his deputy Floyd Shivambu has been moved to the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.
Angelike Charalambous from Ian Levitt Attorneys, representing Malema and Shivambu, confirmed to News24 that the matter had been moved to the High Court on Monday.
"It was moved to the High Court due to the fact that we raised constitutional dispute in our answering affidavit, and the magistrate's court doesn't have jurisdiction to do deal with that," she said.
Charalambous said no date had been set for the matter to be heard yet.
Last week the matter was postponed pending an application by all three parties for the matter to be moved to the High Court.
Malema and Shivambu, through their lawyer, advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, told the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court that they would like to challenge Section 10 of the Equality Act.
The section deals with hate speech.
In November last year, Gordhan lodged complaints against Malema and Shivambu.
This was after Malema referred to Gordhan as a "dog of white monopoly capital" while addressing a crowd outside the commission of inquiry into state capture in November 2018.
Gordhan was at the time testifying before the commission.
A simple case
Malema further told EFF members and supporters that they should be "ready for war" against the minister.
He also took aim at Gordhan's daughter, Anisha Gordhan, saying she had allegedly been awarded contracts by National Treasury and other government departments, seemingly as a result of her father's position in government.
Shivambu accused Gordhan and his daughter of being corrupt.
Gordhan's attorney Tebogo Malatji said although the matter was now moved to the High Court, they saw it as "a simple case".
"From where we are sitting, the next steps are for the High Court to receive the file from the magistrate's court and for a judge to be allocated to the matter and issue direction," Malatji said.
Malatji said all they sought was a ruling that would state whether what Malema and Shivambu said about the minister constituted hate speech or not.
