Concourt dismisses Mbeki bid

2008-11-12 09:15

Johannesburg - The Constitutional Court has dismissed ousted president Thabo Mbeki's urgent application to oppose a high court ruling that ultimately cost him his job, reports said on Wednesday.

Eight Constitutional Court judges dismissed his application on Tuesday, the Business Day and The Star newspapers reported.

The judges ordered that it was "not in the interests of justice to hear [Mbeki's] application at this stage".

This was because the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was in the process of appealing the same judgment in the Supreme Court of Appeal.

The NPA's appeal will be heard on November 28.

Mbeki had wanted the Constitutional Court to scrap certain parts of the ruling handed down in the Pietermaritzburg High Court by Judge Chris Nicholson on September 12.

In his judgment, Nicholson said he could not exclude the possibility of political interference in the decision to re-charge Mbeki's political rival and the new African National Congress president Jacob Zuma for fraud and corruption.

The ANC national executive committee cited the judgment as the main reason for the decision to remove Mbeki from office, about six months before his term would have ended.

- SAPA