President Cyril Ramaphosa’s lawyers have successfully blocked a move aimed at making public his campaign bank statements.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) approached the court to force the disclosure of the statements in an application linked to Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s invalidated report on the CR17 campaign finances.
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has therefore dismissed with costs, the EFF’s application to have the bank statements of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s CR17 campaign made public.
During the course of that litigation, Gauteng Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba agreed to a request from Ramaphosa’s lawyers for the bank statements to be sealed on the basis that they contained confidential donor information.
The EFF later challenged that decision.
While Ishmael Semenya SC, for the EFF, was at pains to say that the party was not insinuating that there was anything “untoward” in the donations to the campaign, he argued that when information that was supposed to be public was kept confidential, there was a danger that politicians would use public office to further the agendas of benefactors.
Earlier this month, the Constitutional Court dismissed Mkhwebane’s efforts to challenge the invalidation of her report on the campaign finances.
