Gordhan denies attempt to sway Mogoeng in favour of 'long-time friend'

This comes after Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng made a shocking revelation on Tuesday that Gordhan, who was finance minister at the time, had approached him in 2016 to ask how Pillay had fared in an interview for a post at the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Pillay's bid for the position was unsuccessful.

This week, Pillay was among five candidates to interview for a seat at the Constitutional Court where the nature of her friendship with Gordhan was a hot topic.

Pillay said she was unaware of the meeting and subsequent conversation Gordhan had with Mogoeng in 2016, adding she didn't believe Gordhan had ulterior motives.

Gordhan has also come out in defence of his intentions for meeting with Mogoeng.

"As I recall, after the completion of the cordial discussion on the matter for which the meeting was requested, I, in passing, did refer to Judge Pillay’s interview with the JSC. The CJ responded. I then left," Gordhan said in a letter to the Judicial Service Commission on Wednesday.

"Although like the CJ, I cannot recall the content of the meeting, I did not meet the Chief Justice to discuss Judge Pillay. The enquiry about Judge Pillay was purely incidental to the purpose of the meeting."

ALSO READ:

He admitted that he and Pillay were friends but categorically denied doing her any favours.

"Judge Pillay is a friend and comrade of long-standing. She was also the partner of the late Mr. Yunus Mahomed (who passed away in 2008), a close comrade in the antiapartheid struggle and with whom I worked in the formation of civics, in the UDF, and in the ANC underground in the 1970s and 1980s," Gordhan wrote.

"In any event, as the Chief Justice himself indicated at the JSC, by the time I met him to discuss one or more of the matters outlined above 'it was public knowledge that you (Judge Pillay) did not make it'.

"I want to state emphatically that I would never, and nor did I in any way, seek to influence the Chief Justice, whose independence I have always respected," he added.

"As a member of the Executive branch of the state, I am very conscious of the fact that our democracy is based on the separation of powers and the relative independence of the judiciary, legislature and executive."

Earlier the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) opened a case of corruption against Gordhan at the Hillbrow police station over the revelations.

Read Pravin Gordhan's full letter below: