Johnathan Paoli
Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has been impeached after a National Assembly majority voted for her removal from office in Cape Town on Monday, with 318 votes, with only 43 votes against and one abstaining.
Mkhwebane’s impeachment stands out because it is the first time in a democratic South Africa that the head of a Chapter 9 Institution has been removed.
Due to the Constitution’s lack of specificity on how the removal should be dealt with, Parliament has had to develop its own rules for the process.
The meeting comes after the Section 194 Committee’s report submission to the National Assembly, recommending that Mkhwebane be removed for incompetence and misconduct.
The MPs met in person at the Cape Town City Hall to vote via roll call and they were required to verbally dictate their vote, following the Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s rejection of the ATM and UDM’s request for a secret ballot.
At the ANC Caucus meeting ahead of the vote, ANC Chief Whip, Pemmy Majodina said anyone in the ANC who voted against the party line will be dealt with and that that party was not afraid to part ways with that person or persons.
The ANC, DA, IFP, FF+ among others unanimously formed the majority of votes for the removal of Mkhwebane from office.
Also calls from former members such as Carl Niehaus among others, urging ANC MPs who considered themselves progressive to vote according to their conscience against the adoption of the report, were clearly ignored by the majority of the MPs in Parliament.
The EFF, UDM, ATM and the PAC had called on the members of Parliament to vote against the removal, citing procedural unfairness as well as political motivations and not incompetence as the true reason for her impeachment.
“The report we are required to endorse today is a product of a process that has been grossly unfair to the Public Protector, and which has been nothing more than a vindictive political witch hunt against the public protector,” the EFF said.
The party rejected the report, and said that it rejected the political witch-hunt initiated by the DA and supported by the ANC to punish Mkhwebane in order to protect the President.
The EFF reiterated its stance that they reserve the right to take this report and the illegal adoption of this report by parliament on judicial review, and invited all interested parties to join, including Mkhwebane and all ‘justice loving individuals in the country’.
The NA’s decision will subsequently be sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa for presidential assent.
The Cape Coloured Congress held a demonstration in support of Mkhwebane, outside the City Hall where the National Assembly will convene a plenary session.
INSIDE POLITICS
