Pretoria High Court Judge Willem van der Merwe has granted South Africa's opposition parties to have a say in a Joburg businessman's court bid to save the Scorpions - despite government's objections.
Following the judge's ruling on Tuesday morning, government's legal team dropped its threat to ask for the case to be postponed, should opposition parties - the ACDP, DA, ID and UDM - be granted the right to a voice in Hugh Glenister's case.
Counsel for government earlier told Van der Merwe that the state wanted time to answer the parties' claims that the dissolution of the Scorpions would amount to a "constitutional crisis".
Glenister is seeking to interdict government from initiating and proceeding with legislation that will allow it to disband the Scorpions.
While government maintains that cabinet had not made any decision to disband the unit at the time that Glenister made his application, it was on Tuesday morning forced to admit that it filed its claims to this effect on the same day that cabinet approved the legislation.
They describe this process as "restructuring".
Michael Osborne, counsel for the opposition parties, on Tuesday morning argued that it was "hard to deny that political parties have a vital interest in the outcome" of Glenister's case.
Stressing that he did not want to delay Glenister's case, Van der Merwe on Tuesday morning said he would allow the opposition parties the chance to have their say. But, he said, he would give his reasons for doing so at a later date.
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