STAFF REPORTER|
THE ANC is split along factional lines regarding the impeachment of public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, which is due to commence next week.
According to the Sunday Times, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule has called on his party’s MPs to oppose the process to impeach Mkhwebane, a move supported by the Democratic Alliance (DA).
He reportedly said that “principled” ANC MPs would not vote in support of the motion brought by the DA.
ANC MPs who are seen as part of an anti-President Cyril Ramaphosa faction have hinted that they will oppose a parliamentary process to remove public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane from office.
Both the ANC Women’s League and the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA) have come out in support of Mkhwebane, saying ANC MPs cannot get marching from the DA to push for the removal of the public protector.
“The ANC will not vote with the enemy”: Magashule told ANC MPs ahead of Mkhwebane inquiry vote this week.
The ANC in Parliament is yet to comment on reports that Luthuli House has instructed the party’s Members of Parliament not to vote with the opposition in the envisaged inquiry into the Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
However, other ANC senior leaders said Magashule has not been mandated to speak on the Mkhwebane issue by the national executive committee, the governing party’s highest decision-making body.
Mkhwebane is a hired gun, and not the Public Protector, said Mbalula on Sunday.
“Which ANC NEC meeting resolved to defend Mkhwebane? The ANC strategy and tactics talks about unity and struggle of the opposite (sic). It doesn’t characterise the opposition political parties as the enemy. You were dining with EFF the other day; is he your enemy,” Mbalula tweeted on Sunday.
“This politics Ace Magashule espouses on our behalf as our Secretary General; where does he get them from? He is supposed to be the chief custodian of ANC policy and that includes its Constitution.”
Reacting to Magashule’s comments about voting with the enemy during the inquiry, ANC leader Derek Hanekom the ANC’s secretary general’s stance was in total violation of the ANC Constitution.
“’The enemy’? When did opposition in Parliament become our enemies? Rule 2.1 f the ANC Constitution, under Aims and Objectives says: To unite all the people of South Africa,” said Hanekom.
A panel of three independent experts to Parliament said this week that Public Protector has a case to answer on counts of misconduct and incompetence.
The recommendation comes a year after Democratic Alliance chief whip Natasha Mazzone submitted a motion to initiate proceedings to determine whether Mkhwebane was fit to hold office.
The panel noted perceptions of bias raised by the courts and Mkhwebane’s failure to disclose that she met with then president Jacob Zuma while arriving at her findings in the Bankorp matter. Her report called for a review of the South African Reserve Bank mandate when Zuma’s allies actively pursued this agenda as the ANC headed to its elective conference at Nasrec.
It found further evidence of misconduct or at least gross negligence in her failure to investigate misappropriation of funds and giving Magashule the discretion to point out the officials who should be probed for wrongdoing when he was implicated.
National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise appointed the panel to conduct a preliminary assessment, and to determine whether there is prima facie evidence, showing misconduct or that Mkhwebane is incompetent.
The public protector would be the first head of a Chapter 9 institution to be impeached.
Former Constitutional Court Justice, Johann Kriegler, told the SABC on Sunday that he strongly believed that Parliament should act against Mkhwebane.
“Independent panel acting in terms of the rules of Parliament has produced a report. I have seen their recommendations, they are perfectly clear. The Portfolio Committee should now take the matter to the floor of the house with a motion for the impeachment for the dismissal of Advocate Mkhwebane,” said Kriegler.
(SOURCE: INSIDE POLITICS)
