The Reserve Bank has won its application to have the public protector’s remedial action to change its constitutional mandate set aside.
The judgment was delivered in the North Gauteng High Court on Tuesday by Justice Cynthia Pretorius.
Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago welcomed the judgment.
“I think we will let the judgement speak for itself,” he said to media at the Reserve Bank on Tuesday.
“We didn’t need a precedent, the mandate of the Reserve Bank is protected in the Constitution and that is what we had always argued for. It is one of the original constitutional principles.”
Mkhwebane had recommended, in her report on the apartheid-era Absa/Bankorp bail-out, that the Constitution be amended to change the Bank’s mandate.
She also ordered Absa to repay R1.12bn.
The Reserve Bank took the remedial action concerning its mandate on review in the high court.
The public protector did not oppose the Reserve Bank’s application when it was heard earlier this month.
However‚ the court had to be approached to set aside the remedial action‚ following an earlier ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal that remedial action by the public protector remains binding and valid until set aside by a court of law.
In the judgment on Tuesday‚ Judge John Murphy also ordered the public protector to pay the costs of the application.
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