Riyaz Patel
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has closed multiple investigations into several high-ranking politicians, saying claims against them were not substantiated.
Mkhwebane made the anouncement during a media briefing on the release of several new reports Thursday, including ones which clear corruption-accused former ministers Baleka Mbete, Faith Muthambi, and Tina Joemat-Pettersson of various corruption allegations investigated by her office.
Tina Joemat-Pettersson 
Faith Muthambi 
Baleka Mbete
Mbete has been cleared of allegations that she was bribed by Invictus Gold, a black economic empowerment consortium of mining company Gold Fields.
The former National Assembly speaker was accused of allegedly receiving a bribe in the form of share allocations amounting to R25m in Invictus Gold Limited “as well as the role the department of mineral resources played in the 2010 broad-based black economic empowerment concluded with Gold Fields Limited.”
Complaints regarding the breach of the Executive Code of Ethics by former minister of communications Faith Muthambi, relating to the SABC inquiry, as well as irregular appointments by former national police commissioner Riah Phiyega were also found to be “unsubstantiated.”
Joemat-Pettersson was cleared of attempting to accelerate a proposed nuclear deal with Russia while energy minister.
“We have closed several investigations on the grounds that allegations that triggered them were all unsubstantiated. We have prepared closing reports to mark the end of these matters,” said Mkhwebane.
She also reflected on the work her office had done this past year, saying it received positive feedback from the Auditor-General and that much of the backlog in the office was cleared.
However, the personal costs order the Constitutional Court granted against her was a low point, she said.
“The lowlight was, for me [was] the Constitutional Court judgment on personal costs. While we respect the courts and their decisions, it remains my considered view that that decision is a threat to the independence of this office,” said the public protector.
She added that it set a “wrong precedent” and impacted negatively on the office and her work.
“We hope for a better experience in 2020.”
She detailed a successful performance for the year, especially the clearing of the backlog.
Still on her radar was the reinstated Vrede dairy farm investigation, as well as the probe into VBS Mutual Bank, SARS, the SA Reserve Bank and Free State government website, and the Medupi and Kusile power stations.
“We are experiencing challenges with this one (SARB) because the Bank seems to believe that we do not have jurisdiction over it. They seem to have misinterpreted the Constitutional Court judgment on personal costs,” she said.
Allegations that former Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba abused his power and allegations of fruitless and wasteful expenditure against the City of Johannesburg were also found to be unsubstantiated.
At the briefing, Mkhwebane painted a positive picture, saying that when she reflected on the year that was, she felt her office “recorded major wins but also suffered a minor setback”.
In July, the Concourt upheld a ruling at the High Court in Pretoria finding that the entire report was flawed and should be overturned.
The High Court in Pretoria had overturned the report in February 2018, saying it showed a “reasonable apprehension of bias” and ordering Mkhwebane to pay 15% of the SA Reserve Bank’s (SARB) legal costs, while the office of the public protector was ordered to pay the remaining 85%.
Her report, released in June 2017, accused Absa (previously Bankcorp) of having illegally gifted the SARB with R1.125 billion in “misappropriated public funds” under the apartheid government in the 1980s.
The Public Protector also cited her office’s other victories at the briefing, which, according to her included her office reducing irregular expenditure by R16 million; the groundswell of praise she said her office received for a report on Toyota affecting the taxi industry and commuters; and various successful investigations by her office which had helped South Africa’s most poor and vulnerable.
She said her office has issued 46 reports in the past year.
“Sometimes it looks easy from the outside looking in. It’s only on the inside, in the thick of things, that you realise this work is not the proverbial bed of roses,” she said.
Discussing the imminent appointment of her new deputy, she said she hoped the new deputy public protector would have “a thick skin to withstand everything that is coming our way.”
