Photo: REUTERS/Ruvan Boshoff/Pool

In a shocking twist the State Attorney today gave notice of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s intention to appeal the ruling of a full bench of judges of the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria that former President Jacob Zuma had acted unlawfully and unconstitutionally by participating in a process to abolish a human rights court for the SADC region known as the SADC Tribunal.

The Law Society of South Africa and six Zimbabwean farmers made a successful application for the judicial review of former President Zuma’s support of and participation in abolishing the SADC Tribunal. The application was brought because the abolishment of the Tribunal had deprived citizens of the SADC region of the right to appeal to a regional human rights court if their rights were denied in their own countries. The six Zimbabwean farmers were represented by AfriForum.

“President Ramaphosa’s decision to appeal the ruling comes as a shock, because the general expectation was that the Ramaphosa Administration would place a higher premium on the rule of law than his predecessor did,” says Willie Spies, AfriForum’s spokesperson and legal representative.

The Chief Justice will shortly issue directives regarding the application for leave to appeal, as well as the six farmers’ application to ratify the ruling.