By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
AfriForum successfully obtained an urgent interdict preventing the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) from making a R50 million donation to Cuba.
In a written judgment to the affected parties, Judge Brenda Neukircher, of the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, granted the urgent interdict, pending the final outcome of an application to be instituted by AfriForum to review and set aside the decision to donate an amount of R50 million to the Government of Cuba, or the final outcome of proceedings to declare that the donation is unlawful and/or unconstitutional.
Judge Neukircher said: “None of the respondents could claim that they would suffer any harm were the R50 million donation to be put on hold whilst the matter was adjudicated on its complete merits.”Neukircher also ordered the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) and National Treasury to pay the costs of the urgent application.
In a statement, Afriforum said “it is pleased that the court ruled in its favour against the ludicrous donation amid a serious economic crisis.”
“We are pleased that we have managed to stop this unlawful and shameful donation in its tracks. We are now optimistic that our review application will succeed in making a final end to the matter. AfriForum pledges to continue its fight against outrageous and wasteful expenditure which is squandering taxpayers’ money,” says Reiner Duvenage, Campaign Officer for strategy and content at AfriForum.
International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor defended the government’s decision to donate R50 million in aid to Cuba.
She said Cuba faces chronic food, fuel, and medicine shortages.
Pandor said the ARF, located within the Dirco and legally constituted to implement humanitarian assistance of such a nature, is coordinating the project.
She was responding to a written parliamentary question from DA MP Willem Faber, Pandor said the Cuban government had called on South Africa and other partner countries in their “hour of need” in July 2021.
AfriForum’s bone of contention was that no mandatory parliamentary overview was conducted over the donation and that National Treasury did not properly approve it.