Former president Jacob Zuma has been denied leave to appeal a court ruling that ordered him to personally pay the legal fees of the DA, the office of the Public Protector, the EFF, the UDM, Cope, former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac).
This follows the failed legal review of former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's directive that a judicial commission of inquiry is appointed to probe the state capture scandal.
The ruling was made by the high court in Pretoria on Friday and communicated to the parties.
It said the parties to the case and the general public deserved "much-needed finality in this matter".
Zuma had sought to take the remedial action on review on the basis that, according to the Constitution, only the president had the discretion to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry and that he could not be directed by another organ of state as to how to exercise his power.
Madonsela had further instructed that not the president, but the chief justice appoint the judge who was to head the commission.
The court in December last year dismissed his review application, finding that none of his arguments had merit and ruled that a commission of inquiry had to be appointed within 30 days. It had to be headed, as per Madonsela's directive, by a chairman appointed by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.
The court also ruled that the then president be held personally liable for the cost of the application as well as an earlier aborted attempted to stop the release of Madonsela's report on the abuse of state funds to benefit politically connected individuals.
- African News Agency (ANA)
