The High Court in Pretoria on Thursday set aside the Public Protector’s 2005 report on the so-called ”Oilgate” scandal, involving a payment by black empowerment company Imvume to the African National Congress (ANC).
The order was delivered by Judge Ntendeya Mavundla, on behalf of Judge Ntsikelelo Poswa, before whom the matter was argued about 20 months ago.
The protector’s office declined immediate comment, saying the court had indicated that the judgement, which consisted of more than 150 pages, would only be available on Friday.
”The Public Protector will therefore not be in a position to comment on the judgement until he has had the opportunity to study it and after having consulted counsel.”
A further statement in this regard would be issued early next week.
The report, by then-public protector Lawrence Mushwana, dealt with the alleged irregular payment of R15-million by PetroSA to Imvume Management.
Imvume told PetroSA it needed the money as bridging finance to pay Glencore, an oil supply company, for a shipment of oil which was four days away from harbour.
Imvume, however, failed to pay Glencore, and PetroSA was forced to pay another R15-million to Glencore directly.
Part of the first payment — R11-million — was alleged to have been used for the ANC’s 2004 election campaign.
Mushwana in his report found no evidence of wrongdoing in the scandal.
He reasoned the ANC and Imvume were not public entities and therefore did not perform public functions and as such were not part of government.
He said the state had no shareholding in Imvume and so the ”alleged payment was clearly made by one private entity to another and could therefore not have had any bearing on state affairs”. — Sapa