The South African Reserve Bank’s Prudential Authority has wasted little time in appealing the decision of the North Gauteng High Court which handed ANC heavyweight Danny Msiza a victory in the VBS Mutual Bank saga.
The central bank said in a statement: “The Prudential Authority considered the judgement and, following the Senior Counsel’s advice that there are good grounds to appeal the judgement, will proceed to file an application for leave to appeal. The Prudential Authority’s grounds for appeal will be fully addressed in the application for leave to appeal.”
The high court reviewed and set aside adverse findings against Msiza on the looting of VBS Mutual Bank on Tuesday.
“The adverse findings and or negative remarks and or conclusions made by the first respondent (Motau) against the applicant (Msiza) in the report titled “The great bank heist” are reviewed and set aside,” the court ruled.
The ruling came hot on the heels of a decision by the ANC national executive committee to reinstate Msiza and the province’s deputy chairperson Florence Radzilani, who is also the former mayor of Vhembe municipality.
The party said last month that although the pair were mentioned in the Motau report, they were not among those charged by law enforcement agencies.
The court found that Motau failed to afford Msiza the right to procedural fairness and that his actions were unlawful and unconstitutional.
“It is declared that the first respondent’s (Motau) failure to afford the applicant an opportunity to be heard during the investigation phase is unlawful and unconstitutional in that it violated the applicant’s rights in terms of section 34 of the Constitution,” the court said.
