Gordhan charges aim to intimidate – court papers

The NPA’s case against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is hopeless and the inescapable conclusion is that the charges are levelled against him to harass and intimidate him for political ends. This, says a Pretoria News report, is according to Francis Antonie, director of the Helen Suzman Foundation, in papers filed at the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria). The foundation and Freedom Under Law will on 8 November ask the court to declare the decision taken by National Director of Public Prosecutions, Shaun Abrahams and the NPA to charge Gordhan with fraud, alternatively theft, be set aside and declared unlawful. The two NGOs will ask for a permanent stay of prosecution. ‘These charges are, apart from vaguely drafted, bad in law, vacuous and unsustainable on any basis – in law and on the facts,’ Antonie said. The application is expected to be heard by the High Court a week after Gordhan and his co-accused, Oupa Magashula and Ivan Pillay are due to appear in the lower court. Antonie said the timing of the charges is worrying, as the facts on which the NPA relied in drawing up the charge sheet, had been in the public domain for almost six years.