Western Cape ANC leader Marius Fransman suffered a comprehensive defeat in the Western Cape High Court last week, says a TimesLIVE report. Judge Nolwazi Boqwana dismissed a case brought by Fransman against the Speaker of the Western Cape legislature and the chair of its Standing Committee on Public Accounts. The case stemmed from Fransman’s reign as MEC for Transport and Public Works between 2005 and 2008.

A study by the AG found that R328m was spent on consultants in the department between 2005 and 2010‚ and Scopa wanted to question Fransman about the audit. He objected and told the court the hearing was ‘nothing more than an abuse of the Scopa process by members of the majority party for narrow political purposes’. Boqwana refused Fransman’s requests to overturn Scopa’s decisions at the meeting‚ saying: ‘The judiciary would be impermissibly impinging on the terrain of the legislature if it were to do what (he) wants it to do.’ In any case‚ she said‚ the Scopa chairperson had since agreed to all Fransman’s requests‚ something he claimed was ‘a facade intended to trap him into a continued abusive process’. The judge awarded costs against Fransman.

Full TimesLIVE report

Fransman v the Speaker of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature and Others