President Cyril Ramaphosa will appeal a ruling that former president Jacob Zuma must provide a record detailing the reasons behind his decision to axe former finance minister Pravin Gordhan, TimesLive reported.
Ramaphosa's spokesperson reportedly said the president is worried about the precedent set, when the High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld the ruling, and will challenge it in the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Gordhan was fired by Zuma in March 2017. The ruling is part of an abandoned court application by the DA. It wanted Zuma to provide reasons for firing Gordhan, as part of its plan to challenge the legality of his Cabinet reshuffle at the time. According to TimesLive, the issue of the Cabinet reshuffle was not yet determined by the courts.
But central to the case was the fact that Zuma said a "fake intelligence report" was behind his decision to fire Gordhan. The State Security Agency later said the report was not theirs.
At the time, Gordhan and his deputy held a media briefing in which they said the so-called intelligence report was "absolute nonsense", Eyewitness News (EWN) reported at the time. The report accused Gordhan, Jonas, and former Treasury director-general Fuzile Lungisa of being involved in a conspiracy to undermine the country.
Incidentally, Ramaphosa was not happy about the firing of Gordhan at the time. According to News24, Ramaphosa said it was "totally uncomfortable that he [Zuma] fired someone like Gordhan who has served the country excellently, for his own gain and survival."