High Court judge Dhaya Pillay who issued warrant of arrest for Jacob Zuma. Image credit: Sandile Ndlovu

Black First Land First (BLF) is concerned by the serious allegations that Judge Dhaya Pillay – who presided in the case against President Jacob Zuma in the Pietermaritzburg High Court yesterday and who issued a vindictive, punitive, and politically charged warrant of arrest against him – is associated with Pravin Gordhan. There are rumors that the Judge is either a relative or a personal friend of Pravin Gordhan and this constitutes a conflict of interest situation.

We know for instance that those who stole R26 billion from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) forced the African National Congress (ANC) to appoint Pravin Gordhan as Minister of Finance and by extension the head of the reporting line for SARB. White monopoly capital (WMC) wanted a Minister of Finance who will defend its interests. Gordhan defends those same interests as Minister of Public Enterprises – the fact that he owns shares in BHP Billiton, which is responsible mainly for the Eskom energy crisis, means he won’t resolve the Eskom crisis.

Gordhan is a shareholder in several WMC businesses which wanted Zuma to be removed from office because he was problematic to white capital, seen to be too close to BRICS and represented the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) agenda. Gordhan was compromised by his business links with WMC and consequently became the public face of the “Zuma must go” campaign to destabilize the BRICS process. Today Zuma continues to symbolize the RET agenda which Gordhan opposes.

Pillay’s links to Gordhan accordingly compels her to recuse herself as Judge from the case against Zuma. The fact that she has already issued a warrant of arrest, in circumstances that it was not necessary to do so as Zuma had a legitimate reason for his absence in court due to his illness for which appropriate medical certification was produced, is sufficient proof of her bias against him due to her conflict of interest situation.

We call for the Judge to recuse herself from this matter, as her close links with Gordhan compromises her ability to be fair and impartial in making any decisions in this case.

Issued by Black First Land First, National Coordinating Committee of (BLF NCC)

5 February 2020

Contact Details

Black First Land First Mail: [email protected]

Zanele Lwana
(BLF Deputy President)
Cell: +27 79 986 7225