January 29, 2024
Small Business Deputy Minister Dipuo Peters launched an urgent application against #UniteBehind and Parliament on 10 January 2024. The case was heard on Friday, 26 January. She attempted to stop Parliament from implementing her suspension from Parliament, which begins on 30 January 2024. Parliament suspended Peters after #UniteBehind submitted a complaint against Peters relating to her tenure as Minister of Transport. Our complaint was based on findings against her by courts, the Auditor-General, and the State Capture Commission.
On 26 October 2023 Parliament’s ethics committee found Peters guilty of breaching the Code of Ethics for MPs because of:
– her failure to appoint a group CEO for PRASA;
– her irrational and unreasonable dismissal of the Molefe board of PRASA, which was cleaning up corruption; and
– on the misuse of PRASA’s assets, which included the use the company’s buses for the ANC’s January 8 celebrations in 2015 that were not paid for.
The Ethics Committee sanctioned her to a 1 term suspension from Parliament.
Peters asked for a court order to stop Parliament from implementing the Ethics Committee ruling pending the judicial review of the whole decision.
Acting Judge Adhikari heard the case on Friday and handed down her judgment today, 29 January 2024. She dismissed Peters’ application in its entirety, with costs, citing the following reasons:
– Peters had not shown sufficient urgency or, alternatively, she had created such urgency herself;
– She sought to disguise a temporary interdict as a final interdict;
– Her application did not have significant prospects of success to grant the temporary interdict she sought.
Read the order of the court for Adhikari AJ’s full reasoning.
This is a victory for #UniteBehind and for all South Africans fighting to ensure accountability for maladministration, corruption, and State Capture. Let it be a lesson to those who seek to avoid accountability: #UniteBehind will not be deterred from our mission to #FixOurTrains and #FixTheState.