The Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday dismissed an application by former president Jacob Zuma and the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party seeking to set aside President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to place Police Minister Senzo Mchunu on special leave.
The court also rejected challenges to the appointment of Firoz Cachalia as acting minister and the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry chaired by retired Constitutional Court justice Zak Yacoob Madlanga.
In a judgment delivered by three judges, the court ruled that the president acted within his constitutional powers when he suspended Mchunu pending the outcome of the inquiry into allegations of ministerial interference in police operations in KwaZulu-Natal.
The bench found that placing a minister on special leave when serious allegations are under investigation is both lawful and rational, and that establishing the Madlanga Commission was a legitimate exercise of executive authority.
The application was dismissed with no order as to costs, meaning each party will pay its own legal fees.
This is the latest in a series of legal setbacks for Zuma and the MK Party in their attempts to challenge Ramaphosa’s handling of the police ministry crisis, which erupted after KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi accused Mchunu of trying to disband a task force probing political killings.
The Madlanga Commission will now continue its work without further legal impediment.