In his ruling explaining why President Jacob Zuma must reveal the reasons behind his Cabinet reshuffle, Pretoria High Court Judge Bashier Vally said the exercise of the president's power must meet the test of rationality.
Vally acknowledged "consternation" surrounding Zuma's firing of former finance minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy, Mcebisi Jonas.
But the entire script on Vally's reasons for his landmark ruling last week was not discussed by him in court today. Instead, the court handed out hard copies on the premises and said a digital edition would be made available to the public later.
Snippets of the document have been made available on various social media platforms.
This is what we know so far:
- Zuma now has until Thursday to hand over any documents which led to his decision on the matter. This includes the controversial 'intelligence report' on the alleged activities of Gordhan and his deputy.
- Vally found three fundamental problems with Zuma's oral submissions to the court, which were in contention of the DA's bid to have him reveal his reasons for axing Gordhan and Jonas. Vally said the submissions were contained in a letter which is annexed to the answering affidavit and there is no averment in the answering affidavit that constitutes the reasons. Secondly, the submissions were made by Zuma's acting attorney and not by the president himself. Lastly, Vally said the president's submissions do not comply with sub-rule 53(1)(b), which requires Zuma to file his reasons with the registrar or hand them over to the DA.
- According to Vally, Zuma, in his submissions, has not dealt with the existence or non-existence of the so-called 'intelligence report'.
There were mixed reactions from social media about Vally's ruling.
This is a developing story.