Johannesburg: A large contingent of EFF members gathered outside Hillbrow police station in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning, picketing and singing Struggle songs before the party's deputy president Floyd Shivambu laid corruption charges against Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Holding placards that read "Pravin is anti-black", the members accompanied Shivambu to the station where he walked inside shortly after 11am.
Gordhan is accused of an attempt of “trying to influence the appointment of KwaZulu-Natal Judge Dhaya Pillay”.
On Tuesday, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said Gordhan had approached him on matters he could not recall and, in passing, had asked him how his friend, Judge Dhaya Pillay, had done in the interview with the Judicial Service Commission for a position at the Constitutional Court.
.@EFFSouthAfrica members picketing outside the Hillbrow police station, waiting for party deputy president @FloydShivambu to lay corruption charges against Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
— IOL News (@IOL) April 14, 2021
Video: Ntombi Nkosi/OL Politics pic.twitter.com/fpxAsbYpc1
The party said Gordhan “orchestrated a clandestine meeting” with Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.
“Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng relayed to the Judicial Service Commission which sat to interview candidates for the Constitutional Court, how Gordhan attempted to find out how a candidate did in an interview,” said EFF spokesperson Vuyani Pambo, who was also at the police station.
In an earlier statement, he said: “His (Gordhan's) undeniable backing of Pillay to assume of the two vacancies at the Constitutional Court reveals a premeditated capture of the judiciary of South Africa by a corrupt cabal of lapdogs."
EFF Deputy President Floyd Shivambu has arrived at Hillbrow Police Station to open a corruption case against Pravin Gordhan @IOL pic.twitter.com/mbWY89wA4u
The EFF has also warned it would report Gordhan to Public Protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane “for breaching the Executive Ethics Act of 1998, in that he has attempted to unduly influence a sitting chief justice”.
“We will further report Pillay for misconduct and bias to the Judicial Conduct Committee If we must go to the streets to free institutions of this country from the filthy grip of Gordhan, then we will do so, by all means, necessary,” said Pambo.
Shivambu arrived in a Mercedes V250 d flanked by party spokesperson Vuyani Pambo and others.
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