#StateCaptureReport: Van Rooyen’s application struck off roll

Minister Des van Rooyen suffered a severe blow when the court struck his application from the roll, due to a lack of urgency.

Pretoria - The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, late Tuesday afternoon allowed the Democratic Alliance, COPE, the UDM and former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor to enter the fray against an application by Zuma to keep the State Capture report under wraps.

The parties as well as Mentor want the Public Protector to immediately release the “dreaded” report.

Meanwhile Minister of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Des van Rooyen, suffered a severe blow when the court struck his new application from the roll, due to a lack of urgency.

Van Rooyen wanted the portions of the report, which possibly implicate him, removed. He said he did not have a problem with the report being published, as long as it did not contain anything in relation with him.

He, as in Zuma’s case, said that they did not have a fair chance to represent their side of the story before former public Protector Thuli Madonsela issued her final report.

But opposition parties argued that he full well knew since October 12 that Madonsela had questions regarding his frequent visits to the Gupta compound in Saxonworld.

They argued that he had ample opportunity to approach the court in this regard. They frowned upon his move of at first applying for an urgent interdict to prevent the report from being published until he had delivered his input, and then withdrawing that application.

Van Rooyen on Monday launched another application to keep the portion referring to him under wraps, stating that he was earlier assured by the public protector that he was not being implicated in her report.

A report in a Sunday newspaper, however, led him to believe that she lied to him and that he seemed to be implicated.

Zuma’s application to amend his notice of motion for the report to be declared unlawful, until he had delivered his inputs into it, will be heard on Wednesday, together with the merits of the main application.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za

Pretoria News