Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, said he had no confidence in the National Director of Public Prosecution's "ability or willingness to afford him a fair hearing."
In a statement Friday via his lawyers, Gordhan said that he would not be making representations to the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Shaun Abrahams.
The NPA head told a parliamentary committee this week that Minister Pravin Gordhan is welcome to approach him to make representations regarding the charges that have been preferred against him.
"Minister Gordhan has taken legal advice on the matter and decided not to make representations to the NDPP," the statement from Tebogo Malatji said.
"The main reason for his decision is that he does not have any confidence in the NDPP's ability or willingness to afford him a fair hearing. First, we repeatedly asked the NPA to afford the Minister an opportunity to make representations to them before they decided whether to prosecute the Minister but they spurned our requests."
"Second, the NDPP's conduct at his press conference announcing the decision to charge the Minister made clear his commitment to the prosecution. Third, having now had an opportunity to study the charges against the Minister, it is also clear to us that they manifest a resolute and not well founded determination to prosecute the Minister at all costs," Malatji continued.
"Any representations to the NDPP would accordingly be pointless," he said..
"Minister Pravin Gordhan continues to take legal counsel in regard to ways and means to bring the matter to an expedited finality. We are assisted in this regard by a team of eminent counsel consisting of Adv. Wim Trengove SC, Adv. Hamilton Maenetje SC and Adv. Ziyaad Navsa."
On Tuesday, Abrahams said that Minister Gordhan had been served with a summons to appear in court on 2 November to answer to charges of fraud.
He will appear in court alongside former SA Revenue Services Commissioner, Oupa Magashula and his former deputy, Ivan Pillay.
He said the three will be prosecuted and arraigned on charges of fraud related to alleged misrepresentation to the government employment fund that Pillay was entitled to full pensionable benefits in terms of the employee-initiated severance package.
On Friday, he organisations Freedom Under Law and the Helen Suzman Foundation wrote to Abrahams calling for the withdrawal of charges against the Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan.
"Ordinarily one does not comment on the merits of pending court cases. But we cannot stand by while untold damage is being done to the reputation and stability of our country following the shocking allegations levelled at the Minister of Finance and the theatrical manner in which they were broadcast earlier this week," the two organisations said in a joint statement.
"For months now there has been a campaign of intermittent leaks to the effect that the Hawks were investigating SARS and/or the Minister, and now the Hawks have been joined by the NPA. Believing it would only make things worse if the Minister were to go cap-in-hand to the NDPP, our two organisations considered ways and means of putting a stop to this disastrous business."
"We had the “charges†analysed and were pleased but not surprised to be advised that they are on the face of it legally flawed and factually unfounded. It is not for us to speculate who or what, if anything, lies behind the investigation and prosecution, but we have been advised that there is a basis upon which we can ask the High Court to examine the validity and viability of the charges with a view to cutting short the prosecution."
"A letter has accordingly been delivered to the NPA this morning calling for the withdrawal of the charges against the Minister and, failing that, for delivery of certain documents and details with a view to urgent proceedings to stop the prosecution," said the joint statement.
