Has Mkhwebane outfoxed us?

THERE is a deep, sharp pain in the pit of my stomach. I feel like I have been hit right in the solar plexus, very hard, by a heavyweight boxer. I can’t breathe. What have we done? What have we done?

When the Democratic Alliance first raised concerns about Busisiwe Mkhwebane in parliament and refused to vote for her as a contender for the public protector’s job, many of us chose to hold our tongues and give her a chance.

When DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach alleged that Mkhwebane worked as a spy while employed as an immigration officer at the South African embassy in China, many of us felt unsettled but still felt that, just as Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng was pilloried and vilified before he went into his new role, Mkhwebane too would rise up to the challenge and the role.

But if Mkhwebane’s first week in office is anything to go by, then we are in deep, deep trouble. I am an optimist and would like to believe that Mkhwebane’s first week in office does not in any way define the next seven years of her tenure.

I am a realist, too, and nothing in what she has said and done in the past week raises my confidence.

If Mkhwebane continues into her second week as she has done in her first, then within a year the Public Protector’s Office will be a shell of its former self.

The hope and admiration that many across this republic hold for that office will be dashed.

Mkhwebane has expressed her apparent disdain for the term “state capture”.

Well, for many that expression will sound true as it pertains to her office.

It is not Mkhwebane’s utterances and actions only that raise serious warning bells. It is the quality of her leadership.

What sort of leader walks into office and starts off by rubbishing her predecessor in just her first three days, instead of holding one’s tongue and even building on the triumphs achieved?

Mkhwebane’s first order of business was to literally order that the TV channels in the office be changed to the Gupta-owned ANN7.

This is the channel owned by the family that the Public Protector’s Office has been investigating for allegedly influencing President Jacob Zuma to such an extent that they took it upon themselves to offer some ANC leaders cabinet positions.

From this minor yet telling incident, Mkhwebane’s week was filled with actions and utterances that leave one with a creeping, chilling feeling that we have all been outplayed and outfoxed by the “state capture” brigade. Her utterances reflected an almost single-minded wish to denigrate her predecessor, Thuli Madonsela.

She told parliament’s justice committee on Wednesday that she would stop foreign donor funding and the use of consultants. She said USAID had donated $500 000 to the office.

This prompted Kebby Maphatsoe, the man who once called Madonsela a CIA spy, to rush in and claim that such funding brought Madonsela’s integrity into question and threatened the public protector’s independence.

It was all a lie, of course. The money was received by the South African government, which then allocated it to Chapter 9 institutions like the public protector, Human Rights Commission and auditor-general.

But who cares about the truth and protecting the integrity of the public protector’s officer?

Not Mkhwebane, it seems. The lie was out and it had begun the besmirching of Madonsela’s name.

If one was worried about Mkhwebane’s actions and utterances in the week, then it was her last action of the week that left one feeling like a heavyweight boxer was giving one a proper hiding.

Mkhwebane announced that she would not oppose the interdict brought by Zuma against the release of the “state capture” report.

In essence, she washed her hands of the entire report. Crucially, she threw Madonsela under the bus – she dissociated the institution of the public protector from Madonsela.

She signalled that her interest in Zuma handing over state power to the Guptas is not of interest to her.

Madonsela is now on her own. Mkhwebane clearly will have nothing to do with that state capture report. Zuma walks away scot-free again, with Mkhwebane’s blessing. What now? Sadly, I think we are in for a rough ride.

As has become the fashion these days, Madonsela will soon be investigated and threatened with arrest by the Hawks.

What crimes will she have committed? The car that her son drove without permission? An early retirement here or there?

The NPA will jump in to ensure that her “priority crimes” are brought to court. It will be Pravingate all over again.

Meantime, you will hear and see nothing that touches Zuma from our new public protector.

The institution will become a shadow of what it was under Madonsela. It will be like the NPA. It will be like the Hawks. It could even be destroyed like the Scorpions. It will be captured.

I hope and pray Mkhwebane proves me wrong.

It is not her utterances and actions only that raise serious warning bells. It is the quality of her leadership