In October 2017, Vanara submitted a sworn statement to the ethics committee that Bongo offered him a “blank cheque” if he would suppress the investigation.

“The alleged act of attempted bribery ... was reported to have occurred on October 10 2017, eight days before [Bongo’s] appointment to the cabinet [by then president Jacob Zuma],” said Binns-Ward in his judgment.

The subcommittee held its first hearing on September 5 2018, when Vanara and another witness testified. Afterwards, Bongo was advised of the identity of four further witnesses.

He filed his court applications at the end of November, complaining that the timeframes for the investigation, set out in parliament’s code of ethical conduct, had not been met.

This was unavoidable, Binns-Ward pointed out, because Vanara was the registrar of members’ interests and would normally manage such an investigation. “As the complainant, he was obviously disqualified from doing so in this case,” said the judge.

“The bureaucratic processes entailed in appointing a substitute caused some delay ... [and] complicated the initial formal reporting of the complaint.”

Binns-Ward said courts would not intervene in parliamentary processes until they had run their course, except in exceptional circumstances.

Bongo’s claim that the subcommittee had taken too long in its investigation was “rather ironic in the circumstances”, said Binns-Ward, since it had postponed its hearings only because of the court application.

“[His] own conduct has therefore materially contributed to the delay in finishing the investigation.”