President Cyril Ramaphosa and former president Jacob Zuma. Pictrures: Nigel Sibanda/The Citizen; Gallo Images Former president Jacob Zuma and the MK party have been dealt another blow after their urgent bid to revive their legal challenge against President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to place Police Minister Senzo Mchunu on a special leave of absence has been dismissed. The decision was handed down in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday, 9 December 2025.
The court also dismissed the challenge to the subsequent appointment of Firoz Cachalia as Acting Minister as well as the establishment of the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into allegations of rot, corruption and interference in the police and the criminal justice system. Judge Anthony Millar ruled that suspending a minister pending serious but unverified allegations, and instituting an independent inquiry to establish the facts, are both rational and lawful exercises of executive power. “In this instance, the President, on the facts presented, did rationally apply his mind to the establishment of the Madlanga Commission.
It is a decision that cannot be faulted from a legality and rationality vantage point. In the premises, the entire application falls to be dismissed.” Millar said it was apposite for the court to briefly address the issue of the suspension or interdict referred to in the Notice of Motion. “On this score, the applicants have failed to persuade the Court.
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What the applicants sought is a temporary interdict contemplated in section 172(2)(b) of the Constitution. Since no constitutional invalidity order has been made, that should be the end of the enquiry,” Millar said. The application was dismissed on the merits, with each party to pay its own costs. Zuma and the MK party wanted the high court to set aside Ramaphosa’s decision to place Mchunu on special leave.
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