By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshaveni has slammed former Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng over his comments on CR17 campaign funds.
The former chief justice delivered the 2023 SAFM inaugural lecture at the SABC in Auckland Park, Johannesburg.
Despite several court attempts to expose CR17 bank records, they remain sealed.
Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba sealed the campaign’s financial records in August 2019 after President Cyril Ramaphosa argued they were illegally obtained by ousted public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane during her investigations.
Mkhwebane estimated the campaign raised at least R1 billion.
Mogoeng said the possibilities of ensuring accountability, responsiveness and openness in public office bearers lay largely with how they ascend high positions in a political party and by extension, to the highest offices on the political arms of the state.
He stressed the importance of the public knowing their political leaders’ funders, stating that this could inform the leaders’ decisions.
“Who facilitates a politician’s upward mobility is a question that must necessarily and seriously exercise our minds, for the biting truth is, there is no free lunch in this world,” he said.
“Private funding of individuals in political parties and political parties themselves is in my view an investment that is expected to yield very handsome returns as soon as beneficiaries thereof rise to positions of sufficient authority to deal out favours and tenders.”
Mogoeng recalled his minority judgment in the R500,000 Gavin Watson donation case, where he advocated transparency and accountability.
Addressing Ramaphosa’s claim of ignorance regarding the CR17 campaign activities, Mogoeng asserted that the president had a duty to know who was funding his campaign.
“Our freely elected representatives cannot help build a free society if they are not themselves free of hidden potential bondage or captivation,” he said.
Speaking at a post-Cabinet briefing on Thursday, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni slammed Mogoeng for his comments, calling them “unfortunate”.
“They [comments] are unfortunate because he had a minority judgment on that. It is unfortunate that he wants to rule from the grave and wants to comment from the grave,” she said.
Mogoeng, who penned a dissenting judgment in the same matter, said the president relied on a technicality, but had ultimately lied in that he said he had limited knowledge about who the funders of the CR17 campaign were.
“Not once does he explain why he and his team chose not to tell the truth, but to rather mislead the public protector as he did. Instead, he says that the emails are in any event irrelevant to the public protector’s findings, but that cannot be correct, for not only are the emails relevant, but they also expose the falsehood of the version that the president and the CR17 campaign managers chose to present to the public protector,” said Mogoeng.
A minority judgment is seen as a dissenting voice with no legal standing.