Lobby group AfriForum has successfully interdicted the government's planned R50-million donation to Cuba.

In a written judgment to the affected parties, Judge Brenda Neukircher, of the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, granted the urgent interdict, pending the final outcome of an application to be instituted by AfriForum to review and set aside the decision to donate an amount of R50-million to the Government of Cuba, or the final outcome of proceedings to declare that the donation is unlawful and/or unconstitutional. 

Neukircher said: "None of the respondents could claim that they would suffer any harm were the R50-million donation to be put on hold whilst the matter was adjudicated on its complete merits." Neukircher also ordered the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) and National Treasury to pay the costs of the urgent application.

She said the matter represented the broader interests of the public, and there was no reason for the lobby group to be out of pocket. After the judgment, Reiner Duvenage, the campaign officer for strategy and content at AfriForum, said: "We are pleased that we have managed to stop this unlawful and shameful donation in its tracks. We are now optimistic that our review application will succeed in making a final end to the matter.

AfriForum pledges to continue its fight against outrageous and wasteful expenditure, which is squandering taxpayers' money.

"The judgment was somewhat unexpected as Neukircher last week warned that AfriForum's application may have been premature and premised on shaky legal arguments. 

"During the presentation of arguments, Neukircher warned AfriForum's legal representative, Johan Hamman, that the applicants were misreading communication provided by Dirco and National Treasury.

As such, she said, AfriForum was premising its legal bid on a shaky foundation.  

Neukircher corrected Hamman, who kept alluding to the letter from the aforementioned departments as meaning that the donation had been concluded. 

"It's the decision to donate, not the donation. It [the letter from Dirco and National Treasury] does not say the donation has been done. It says we [the two departments] have decided to donate, and the decision to donate was concluded in line with the prescribed regulations.

"That is the problem here; this is where the respondent is saying AfriForum is missing the point. There hasn't been a completion of the steps by which the actual money will be transferred.

"We [the two departments] are still right at the beginning, that is what they are saying, that we have made the decision, we have got the funds because the funds have been approved and the request to make the donation has been approved.

But we haven't finished the rest. We are not there yet," said the judge. The successful interdict represented the first part of AfriForum's legal action against the donation. 

The second part will involve submitting a review application at a later date to overturn the government's decision to donate the funds to Cuba.