Phuti Mosomane
Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane told reporters on Wednesday that she will challenge Parliament’s Section 194 report which recommended her dismissal.
Mkhwebane was addressing the media in Midrand a day after the Parliament Ad Hoc Committee announced that it had recommended Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka for the position of Public Protector.
“We will take the report on review and we are still finalising the strategy on whether to interdict whilst reviewing or lodge a review application,” she said.
The last time Mkhwebane addressed the media was in connection with the allegations of extortion, bribery and corruption made by the late Tina Joemat-Pettersson implicating the Chairperson of the section 194 Committee Richard Dyantyi
and the ANC Chief Whip Pemmy Majodina.
The Parliamentary Joint Ethics Committee, the police and the Hawks are still investigating the case.
On Wednesday, Mkhwebane urged the Speaker of the National Assembly Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula not to table the report of the Committee.
The report recommending the removal of Mkhwebane has the majority support from members representing the ANC, DA, African Christian Democratic Party, Freedom Front Plus and Inkatha Freedom Party.
Of the 35 members of the Section 194 Committee, 19 are from the ANC and four from the DA, one from the Freedom Front Plus , one from the IFP and one from the ACDP, forming what Mkhwebane called “an unassailable prepacked voting majority bloc of 26 which has voted together on every issue.”
“I feel that it would be irrational for her (speaker) to schedule the tabling of the report and/or place it before the National Assembly before dealing with the issues raised in my attorneys’ letter to her,” she said.
One of the issues Mkhwebane raised is the fact that the draft report of the committee was discussed and adopted on 11 August and at a time when, the legal representatives chosen by the Public Protector, HM Chaane Attorneys had withdrawn for various reasons specified in their letter addressed to the Chairperson of the Committee and dated 3 August 2023.
On 22 August 2023, without any response to her letter or any counter proposals, the Committee forged ahead and decided, by majority vote, to reject her request, and adopt the final report.
She said only on 24 August, Dyantyi responded to her letters “well after the horses had bolted.”
Mkhwebane now wants Mapisa-Nqakula to address what she called the “committee’s repeated and blatant denial of her right to full legal representation throughout the section 194 enquiry proceedings.”
A court application for the recusal of the Chairperson and Kevin Mileham as members of the Committee upon various grounds is also currently pending before the Supreme Court of Appeal, following the granting of Mkhwebane’s application for leave to appeal by the Western Cape High Court.
She said should the review of the non-recusal decisions be granted, this will have the effect of nullifying the entire proceedings of the section 194 Committee.
A request has been made to the President of the SCA to expedite the hearing of this matter for a date prior to 15 October 2023 which is the date of expiry of our client’s term as Public Protector.
“Notably, it has also since been revealed by Advocate Winston Erasmus that there was a further ground of recusal in respect of the Chairperson’s deliberate non-disclosure of his role as a manager or co-ordinator of the so-called CR17 campaign which features prominently among the charges,” she said.
A punitive removal or dismissal in such circumstances can only be carried out to pursue ulterior and improper motives and purely out of the malice and vindictiveness of her persecutors, Mkhwebane claimed, adding that the National Assembly is not legally entitled to act in such a manner.
“To be legal, its conduct and/or decisions must be rational in any particular circumstances,” she said.
However, Mapisa-Nqakula said on Tuesday that the committee “acts independently and that she is unable to act” on Mkhwebane’s demands.
But Mkhwebane said the response amounts to an unlawful abdication of her responsibilities.
Last week, the DA issued a statement stating that “it is crucial that the National Assembly reaches a decision before Mkhwebane’s term ends on October 14th”.
The official opposition that it would be an injustice if Mkhwebane is allowed to retire with a golden handshake simply because her term runs out before she is finally impeached.
For Mkhwebane, the statement is both “revealing and illiterate, which is not surprising. What is most hurtful is that the ANC has bought into this racist and sexist narrative,” she said.
The statement is revealing because for the first time the disguise of seeking “accountability” has been exposed as a sham, she said.
The suspended Public Protector said what the DA and ANC are really seeking is her “punishment for holding their leaders accountable, for doing my work without fear, favour or prejudice, for asking the 31 Phala Phala questions, for the CR17 report, the rogue unit report and for commenting on the economic impact of the Reserve Bank mandate on the poor.”
Mkhwebane leaves her office with clean audits and she said that ‘coupled with the excellent performance of the core mandate of the PP, I moved the performance of that institution from less than 20% to 79% on achievements of strategic objectives.
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