Mkhwebane lied to Parliament — lawyers

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has been accused of lying to Parliament during her appearance before its justice committee on March 6.

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has been accused of lying to Parliament during her appearance before its justice committee on March 6.

Mkhwebane appeared before the committee to explain her report on the investigation into Absa and Bankorp, now set aside by the high court.

Business Day understands that Absa’s attorneys have written to the parliamentary committee, pointing out the inaccuracies in Mkhwebane’s submissions to it on March 6.

Portfolio committee chairman Mathole Motshekga on Monday confirmed receiving the letter from Absa’s legal representatives. Motshekga told Business Day that Mkhwebane would be offered an opportunity to respond to it before the committee made any findings on the letter’s contents.

The letter pointed out numerous instances in which she had misled Parliament over her report into Bankorp.

“We note that it is not Absa Bank Limited but three judges of the High Court who found these statements are untrue,” the letter from Absa’s legal representatives, Webber Wentzel, said.

“Absa Bank LTD accordingly instructed us to prepare this memorandum documenting those statements that Mkhwebane made before the Portfolio Committee which the High Court had already found to be untrue,” the letter said.

The firm pointed out that the high court had found that Mkhwebane was dishonest in the course of the investigation and in her sworn affidavits filed in court.

Absa pointed out that while Mkhwebane told the portfolio committee she had conducted her investigation in good faith, the high court found that the process “was not impartial” and there was therefore “reasonable apprehension that the Public Protector was biased against Absa and the SA Reserve Bank”.

This finding was that she did not “fully understand her constitutional duty to be impartial and to perform her function without fear, favour or prejudice”.

During her presentation to the committee, Mkhwebane said she had not had a “secretive” or “whatever meeting” with Jacob Zuma. However, Absa’s attorneys say in their letter that this was not true.

The high court had found that she failed to disclose her meeting with Zuma and had only done so in a later answering affidavit in the court proceedings to review the report.

However, she had still not made available the minutes of that meeting and the court found it was “veiled in obscurity”.

Mkhwebane is facing scrutiny from Parliament over her handling of the AbsaBankorp report as well as her report into the Vrede dairy farm project, in which high-level ANC officials are implicated, including former mining minister and ANC Free State treasurer Mosebenzi Zwane.