Public protector Thuli Madonsela. (Gallo)
Public protector Thuli Madonsela received a postponement from the high court in Pretoria on Friday as the state pursues an interdict to stop her from releasing the Nkandla report.?
By agreeing to a postponement, the security cluster ministers have essentially bought the time they needed and secured a de facto victory.
On Friday, the ministers of police, defence, public works and state security brought an urgent application in the high court in Pretoria, seeking to interdict the public protector from releasing her provisional report into Nkandla to interested parties.
In the papers, the ministers argued that the provisional report is already so replete with security-sensitive information that it would cause "irreparable" harm if it were released to the interested parties in its current form.
The ministers want more time to study the report and comment on it before it is released.
More time
It remains unclear whether Madonsela intends opposing the application for the interdict, but she asked the court for a postponement on Friday to allow her legal team more time to prepare for the main application.
The merits of the application were therefore not at issue on Friday.
The ministers, represented by advocate William Mokhari, did not object to the postponement. The parties agreed that a postponement until November 15 was appropriate.
But the parties disagreed on one element of the draft order granted by the court on Friday – the ministers wanted an undertaking from Madonsela that she would not release the provisional report before November 15.
Madonsela, represented by advocate Stephen Maritz, objected to giving such an undertaking. However, Maritz indicated that Madonsela had no intention of releasing the report before that time.