Nine days after announcing that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan would be charged with fraud, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) issued a subpoena to the CEO of the Government Pensions Administration Agency to provide documents that explain the approval of requests for early retirement.

This was revealed in an explosive supplementary affidavit filed at the North Gauteng High Court on Wednesday by Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) director Francis Antonie. The HSF and Freedom Under Law are asking the court to set aside the charges against Gordhan.

“The timing suggests a desperate, eleventh-hour attempt to prop up a prosecution that, clearly, was hopeless from the start. This is information the NPA should have gathered long before any decision to prosecute was made, and the NPA’s failure to do so underlines the irrationality and unlawfulness of its decision. This is especially so given that the information is likely to be exculpatory,” the HSF said in a media statement.

Gordhan is charged with fraud for approving the payment of an early pension to the former deputy commissioner of Sars, Ivan Pillay. He is scheduled to appear in court on November 2.