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Update, 12 December 2018: Tom Moyane plans to challenge the High Court’s judgment, handed down yesterday. He will be heading back to the Constitutional Court to appeal the court’s dismissal of his firing by Ramaphosa.
Former Sars head Tom Moyane is not a man who gives up easily. Dismissed by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 1 November, after being on suspension since March, Moyane is fighting for his job but has suffered a string of setbacks in court – the latest one occurring today in the North Gauteng High Court.
After his dismissal Moyane had wasted no time in approaching the Constitutional Court, asking it in November for an interim order to set aside Ramaphosa’s decision to fire him – an application that the ConCourt turned down.
He had also mounted a bid in the High Court to have his dismissal set aside, to have the findings of the Nugent Commission into Sars blocked, to have the proceedings at the Nugent Commission declared unlawful and unconstitutional, and to prevent Sars from advertising and filling his erstwhile position.
The North Gauteng High Court today threw out Moyane’s application to have his dismissal set aside. Handing down judgment, Judge Hans Fabricius was scathing of what he viewed as Moyane’s abuse of the courts. He also imposed a punitive cost order on Moyane.
Fabricius said that the national interest far outweighed Moyane’s interest, and therefore the latter’s application must be dismissed.
Fabricius also strongly criticised Moyane’s conduct during the protracted court battle, calling it “particularly reprehensible. It’s vexatious and abusive. Both the President and Judge Nugent have been attacked and insulted.”
Moyane’s lawyer Eric Mabuza hinted that the fight is not over yet. “We are going to study the judgment. However, if there is a need for us to come back, we will come back.”
• Image: Flickr/GovernmentZA
