Sadly we won’t be hearing the full contents of Thuli Madonsela’s parting gift to the South African people, her report into ‘State Capture’.

That’s thanks to Zuma’s desperate legal efforts yesterday (HERE), but we shouldn’t forget that Weekend Finance Minister Des van Rooyen was also desperately scrambling for that report to be withheld for the time being.

Here’s a snippet of the application he made to the the High Court in Pretoria:

We’ll get back to what’s happened in court today in a moment, and why Des is so desperate, because first let’s look at the bombshell that the BBC have dropped about Des and his ill-fated stint as finance minister:

Sources close to Ms Madonsela say evidence gathered from cellphones show that the man chosen to succeed a popular finance minister who was dramatically sacked last year, had spent the previous evening at the home of the Guptas – a wealthy Indian business family alleged to wield influence over the president.

That man chosen would be van Rooyen, and the finance minister he replaced would be Nhlanla Nene.

The recordings allegedly reveal that the night before Finance Minister Nhlanla Nene was sacked last December the man who was selected to succeed him was drinking tea with the Guptas at their home in Johannesburg.

Nothing a cup of tea to plot the downfall of a country, and you get the feeling that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Now over to how the whole affair is playing out at the High Court:

Des van Rooyen’s advocate Stephan du Toit has proposed a new date to hear the matter on November 1.

Judge Dawie Fourie says he needs to contact the deputy judge president to confirm the date agreed by all counsels…

…the November 1 court date has been approved.

So we’ll wait until November 1 then, when parties will argue for or against an interdict against the release of Thuli Madonsela’s interim state capture report.

Sigh.

As is her want, Madonsela has chosen to respect the law. This from eNCA:

“Our client has taken the decision in the exercise of her discretion not to release the report (today),” a member of Madonsela’s legal team told the High Court in Pretoria.

Oh well Thuli, it’s nice to know that some of us here at home (and abroad) actually appreciate your earnest, honest hard work.

[sources:bbc&news24&enca]