The Oppenheimer family’s company Fireblade has won its legal battle in the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) with Judge Sulet Potterill declaring former Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba did indeed give the company the go-ahead to run a customs and immigration service at OR Tambo International Airport.

A report on the IoL site says the approval was granted last year, but it was revoked a few days later, apparently following pressure from the Gupta family.

Fireblade subsequently asked the court to declare that the approval remained of force and effect and that it may not be revoked. Potterill said the facts reflect that the concept of establishing a fixed based aviation operation was already floated in 2011 and had the support of OR Tambo International Airport, the Airports Company, Denel and the Department of Home Affairs.

It required Fireblade to adhere to many regulatory requirements from various departments and institutions. ‘It was a four-year expensive exercise to establish this seven star facility,’ the judge said. She said the last step in the process was the approval by the Minister.

The Minister later announced that ‘the approval we granted them is suspended until further notice.’ The judge found that the Minister’s reasons for the ‘suspension’ were ‘palpably untrue’. She declared that the Minister’s approval is thus of force and effect and may not be revoked without due cause. She said Fireblade can implement and rely on the approval.

Full report on the IoL site

Minutes taken by Fireblade at a meeting on 28 January 2016 reflect that ‘MG (Malusi Gigaba) has signed this approval’. According to the minutes, Gigaba then also requested that President Jacob Zuma be invited to the official opening. But, notes a City Press report, just over a week later, Gigaba penned an internal memo in which he stated that ‘(Fireblade) must be made aware forthwith that the approval we granted them is also suspended until further notice, pending Denel’s investigations and their conclusions’. This, notes the report, was ostensibly done because Denel, which was leasing the property to Fireblade, and had also initially expressed its support for the project in writing, had raised an objection about security clearances. During the course of this litigation, allegations were made by Fireblade that the Gupta family had attempted to pressurise the company into taking an empowerment partner. According to media reports, it was alleged that the Gupta family then used their influence in Denel to pressurise Gigaba into withdrawing his approval. But the court did not make any findings on these allegations, ruling instead that Gigaba’s own explanations of changing his mind did not hold up. Gigaba's explanation that he made this comment on the basis that he expected Home Affairs officials to advise him that the project should proceed. But the court ruled ‘this explanation is nonsensical and palpably untrue’. Gigaba said he felt that the judge got it ‘very wrong. My preliminary response is that I will appeal.’

Full City Press report