Public Protector given reprieve
‘If we don’t agree on the inquiry, we’ll be faulting our responsibility’
PUBLIC Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has been given a reprieve – for now – after Parliament decided it would deliberate on whether to establish an inquiry into her fitness to hold office in the next few months.
This followed intense discussions in the portfolio committee on justice and correctional services over her future.
The DA, EFF and ACDP yesterday tried to push for the immediate establishment of an inquiry against Mkhwebane, with the intention to remove her from office.
But ANC MPs said they should wait a few months.
Committee chairperson Mathole Motshekga said it would be best to give Mkhwebane an opportunity to respond to the allegations by the DA.
DA chief whip John Steenhuisen said there were a number of reasons why Mkhwebane should be removed, including scathing judgments against her.
MPs across the parties said they were not dealing with the guilt or otherwise of Mkhwebane, but trying to establish if an inquiry into her fitness to hold office was necessary.
Steenhuisen said there was a serious need for such an inquiry considering the scathing court judgments.
Opposition parties warned the ANC that if they failed to hold the inquiry it would be a serious indictment against Parliament. They said the decision would come back to haunt them like the Nkandla judgment when the Constitutional Court made serious findings against Parliament for not acting on the matter.
Steve Swart of the ACDP said: “If we do not agree on the inquiry, we will be faulting on our responsibility.
“We have breached our responsibility in the past.”
Steenhuisen said Mkhwebane was not appealing the entire judgment on the Absa report, but the personal cost order against her.
“There is no harm, irreparable harm in initiating this inquiry. We will be protecting ourselves from the charge,” said Steenhuisen.
“What undermines the fight against corruption is when you have sloppy reports that are easily overturned,” he said.
Thilivhali Mulaudzi of the EFF said the scathing judgments against Mkhwebane were sufficient to draw the attention of the committee to act against her.
But Motshekga said they could not take a decision until they had given Mkhwebane an opportunity to respond to the allegations by Steenhuisen.
“All I can do, to be fair to you (Steenhuisen) and to her, is to submit your presentation to her for her to comment and come back to the committee, we look at what she is saying and decide whether to hold an inquiry.
“We will wait until we have heard her,” he said.
Earlier Mkhwebane told journalists, after her meeting with the committee on the appointment of her special adviser, Sibusiso Nyembe, adjourned, that the committee had every right to decide what to do with the matter.
“We have got democracy in South Africa and it is a vibrant democracy.
“The deliberations will take place with members of the committee. I have nothing to say and I will leave it to them,” said Mkhwebane.