EDITORIAL: When a loss may be a win
Neither Pravin Gordhan nor the Guptas emerges from the judgment unscathed
Sometimes what seems like a defeat in court can actually be a victory. So it is with the high court’s dismissal of former finance minister Pravin Gordhan’s application for a declaratory order to prevent him interfering in the Guptas’ dispute with the banks. In effect, three judges declined to grant the declaratory order because the law on the subject is so clear that no order was needed. That’s the bottom line that emerges from the text of the judgment. Amid all the litigious to-ing and fro-ing between the parties and the various interlocutory applications and counter-applications, the text of the judgment returns frequently to what it calls the "succinct legal issue" — whether a declaratory order is needed to tell the finance minister that he has no power to intervene in the contractual relationship between banks and their clients. The answer from the court was that there was absolutely no uncertainty about this. Neither the finance minister nor — importantly — any other member of ...
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