Civil society groups race to court over 'hopeless' case against Pravin Gordhan
Legal lobby groups Freedom Under Law and the Helen Suzman Foundation have lambasted in court papers the criminal charges against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan saying the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA’s) case was "hopeless". The announcement on October 11 that Gordhan would be charged with fraud caused the rand to drop sharply and the charges have been widely condemned as spurious and furthering a political agenda. But NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said the NPA would defend the case launched by the groups. "We do not take a decision to prosecute which is not backed up by any evidence." The two legal organisations urgently approached the High Court in Pretoria, asking it to declare unlawful the decision to prosecute Gordhan and to set the charges aside. They also asked for a permanent stay of prosecution in respect of the charges. In an affidavit, the Helen Suzman Foundation’s Francis Antonie said the charges were "drafted in terms of the vaguest generality, bad in law, vacuous...
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