Former president Jacob Zuma's legal showdown against President Cyril Ramaphosa, to have police minister Senzo Mchunu’s leave and the appointment of Firoz Cachalia as acting minister set aside, has been set for hearing on September 18.
The case was provisionally scheduled to be heard on Tuesday at the Pretoria high court but went for case management. On Wednesday, the High Court set the matter for hearing in the special motion court on September 18.
Zuma and his MK party in the legal bid also want the establishment of the much-anticipated commission of inquiry to probe allegations of criminal infiltration in the security cluster to be set aside.
The former president initiated the case, which raises questions about the correct legal interpretation of the president’s legal powers in the High Court after it was dismissed by the Constitutional Court in July 31.
Ramaphosa’s challenged decisions were triggered after KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged that police, prosecutors and judicial officers were part of a criminal syndicate controlled by drug cartels.
The high court also scheduled the case of police deputy national commissioner Shadrack Sibiya challenging his “stay-at-home” order issued by his boss, national commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola, for hearing on September 3.
The case was initially set for Tuesday but was referred for case management.
Sibiya was stopped from working after Mkhwanazi went public about the disbandment of the KwaZulu-Natal political task team investigating high-profile murders.
Mkhwanazi said the team was disbanded when it was close to exposing suspects behind high-profile murders in Gauteng. He alleged Sibiya and Mchunu were associated with murder accused Vusimuzi Matlala.
Matlala was arrested by the task team in Gauteng last year, and earlier this year the SAPS cancelled a R360m tender that was awarded to his company.
Sibiya contends he disbanded the team according to an instruction from Masemola’s office. Masemola, however, accused Sibiya of intentionally disobeying his instructions on the disbandment.
Masemola also denies that the allegations linking Sibiya to Matlala, were false.
Masemola, in his court papers, said he approved a gradual dissolution of the task team but Sibiya immediately dismantled the team and directed the team to hand in dockets to the head office.
“It appeared to me the applicant might have deliberately ignored instructions … which necessitated an investigation as to his intentions and motives in the disbandment of the task team.”
The disbandment of the task team will be a crucial part of the commission chaired by retired Constitutional Court judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga.
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