The Johannesburg High Court has indefinitely postponed the hearing of Imvume Management’s application against the Freedom Front Plus over its disclosure to Parliament of payments allegedly made from an advance by PetroSA.
Imvume has asked the court to rule the FF+ in contempt of court for disclosing to Parliament the company’s payments to the African National Congress, the brother of Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and the wife of Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya.
Imvume also asked the court to take appropriate punitive steps.
The postponement granted on Wednesday is to allow Imvume’s lawyers to finalise investigations.
Imvume’s attorney Barry Aaron said the investigations are into information not easy to verify and central to the application. He did not elaborate on the nature of the information.
Aaron said Imvume informed the FF+ in November of the possibility of a postponement in the application, which it filed in September last year. Imvume is the company central to the Oilgate scandal.
”The FF+ all along held the view that parliamentary privilege protected it from civil or criminal action pursuant to its revelations in Parliament,” the party said in a statement.
”The party’s defence is based on the fact that its members of Parliament have not only the right, but also a duty to honour their oversight role and to report apparent irregularities to the forum Parliament offers,” it said. — Sapa