No evidence Gordhan meddled in judge’s interview, public protector says

Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane said on Wednesday the allegation that public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan abused his position to influence the appointment of his friend Dhaya Pillay as judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) could not be corroborated.

During the sitting of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) in April last year, former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said Gordhan had approached him in 2016 to ask how “his close friend” Pillay had fared after she had completed an interview for a vacancy at the SCA.

Gordhan denied he had tried to influence Mogoeng and maintained that the meeting he had with Mogoeng was not to discuss Pillay.

“It was entirely incidental to the purpose of the meeting,” Gordhan said at the time. 

Mkhwebane investigated after a complaint by EFF MP Floyd Shivambu, alleging that Gordhan breached the executive ethics code.

“We have had to close this investigation because Mr Shivambu’s allegations could not be corroborated,” Mkhwebane said during a media briefing on Wednesday.

The investigation revealed that when Gordhan and Mogoeng met at the Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa in Cape Town on April 6 2016, the spokesperson for the JSC had already announced the interview results and it was public knowledge that Pillay had not made it.

“It would therefore be factually or legally impossible for Mr Gordhan to have influenced the outcome of an interview that had already been concluded,” Mkhwebane said.

Gordhan’s conduct could not be regarded as having been in breach of the executive ethics code, she said.

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