Gigaba's court bid against damning ruling dismissed
The appeals court has agreed with the high court that the Home Affairs minister breached the Constitution.
The Supreme Court of Appeal has dismissed an application for leave to appeal a high court ruling by the Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba - which found he had breached the Constitution.
It relates to a case against the Oppenheimer family's Fireblade business.
"We do not think the arguments put forward have any reasonable prospects of success," reads the judgement by Judge Malcolm Wallis.
Judgement was handed down on Wednesday morning.
ALSO READ: Gigaba lied under oath, high court finds
The minister applied to the court following a scathing judgement in the high court in Pretoria in December.
Judge Neil Tuchten, hearing an appeal from an earlier ruling, found Gigaba "committed a breach of the Constitution so serious that I would characterise it as a violation".
The courts found Gigaba had granted the Oppenheimer family’s application to offer immigration services at its VVIP Fireblade Aviation facility at OR Tambo International in January 2016.
Gigaba then denied having given approval, arguing before the courts that entry points into the country need to be available to all people, as stipulated in the Immigration Act.
But in his judgement Tuchten found Gigaba granted “permission, and for reasons which he does not disclose, then bethought himself of his decision and wished to escape its consequences".
Wallis agrees with the previous judgements, saying Gigaba's explanation that stakeholders merely indicated the project could go ahead was inconsistent with the available documents.
The Home Affairs department says it is in the process of studying the judgement and will decide on the way forward soon.