The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a major proponent of the lie that the South African Revenue Service (Sars) established an illegal "rogue unit" and Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane seems unable to question the party's motives for going after him, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan says.

Gordhan says in an affidavit, filed as part of his urgent application in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to interdict remedial action against him and set aside Mkhwebane's report into him, that the EFF's complaints against him are politically motivated.

Mkhwebane launched an investigation after a complaint was laid by EFF deputy leader Floyd Shivambu and an anonymous individual.

Gordhan and EFF leader Julius Malema are also embroiled in a hate speech case before the Equality Court after Malema made derogatory and racially charged comments about Gordhan while he was testifying at the Zondo commission of inquiry into State capture last year.

The case is still pending.

The former finance minister says the EFF "enthusiastically received" the recent adverse findings against him by Mkhwebane, who he accuses of bias and being driven by ulterior motives, in addition to acting unlawfully and incompetently.

"The EFF also is a vocal supporter of the Public Protector when concerned South Africans view her record in office and see incompetence, legal illiteracy and partisanship. This view finds support in the judgments in several other cases, where her competence and performance have been criticised and her reports set aside," Gordhan says.

He argues that the EFF has resorted to repeating lies about him and Sars on various platforms and that it shows the party has a political motive.

"Yet this motive has been ignored, or, worse, endorsed, by the actions of the Public Protector against me, taken to date. No awareness of the infirmity of or motive for the allegations against me by the EFF is shown by the Public Protector. Rather, she is unquestioning in her acceptance of them. This is the result of incompetence, bias or both," he says.

"It appears that the Public Protector, whether wittingly or unwittingly, has permitted her office and its extensive powers, to be weaponised in this political war against 'unity and renewal'."