Prove protector unfit – Mthembu
ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu has weighed in on the controversy surrounding the public protector‚ saying those seeking her removal will have to prove her incompetence.
Speaking to journalists in parliament on the performance of the ANC caucus in the last six months‚ he questioned the wisdom of those pursuing the ousting of Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane on the basis of several of her reports that had been overturned by the courts.
Mthembu’s argument was also advanced by ANC MPs on Wednesday during a meeting of the portfolio committee on justice following a presentation by DA chief whip John Steenhuisen in which he motivated why an inquiry into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office should be urgently instituted.
Mthembu said while he was not in a position to comment on the performance of Mkhwebane since she assumed office‚ because he did not serve on the justice committee‚ he believed it was incorrect to call for her removal each time a court of law overturned her reports.
“That is why we’ve got safeguards in the constitution, safeguards which say that people who hold these offices are able to make mistakes.”
The public protector’s competence was called into question once more this week after she found that Western Cape Premier Helen Zille had breached the constitution by praising colonialism on Twitter‚ with critics saying she had overstepped her powers yet again.
“Anyone who says the public protector is no longer fit needs to prove to all of us that the public protector is incompetent‚” Mthembu said.
“So far nobody has proved that wrong judgment calls made by the public protector are on account of her inability to hold office.”
Turning to caucus matters‚ Mthembu said ANC MPs had performed well.
He cited as examples the passage of 13 pieces of legislation‚ including the National Minimum Wage Bill‚ the Public Audit Amendment Bill and the Political Party Funding Bill.
Mthembu said ANC MPs would be spending time in their constituencies between now and mid-August in an attempt to strike a balance between the time spent in Cape Town and the communities that elected them into office.
HELEN Zille is probably right about one thing. Public protector Busi Mkhwebane does not understand the constitution.
This week Mkhwebane released a report in which she found that the Western Cape premier’s tweets about the legacy of colonialism had breached sections of the Executive Ethics Code and amounted to an incitement of imminent violence.
She ordered the Western Cape Legislature, to which Zille accounts, to take action against her. Let us be clear. Zille’s tweets were highly problematic, insensitive and revealed an attitude of disdain for the brutal, multigenerational impact of colonialism in this country.
However, while they are morally indefensible, Mkhwebane would have a hard time convincing a court that Zille’s tweets should be legally seen as inciting violence.
Her finding to this effect, therefore, raises one of many questions about her grasp of the law at best or, at worst, her intentions with this report.
Perhaps even more troubling is how the public protector arrived at the conclusion that the act which governs her office gives her the power to probe breaches of the Bill of Rights, which is essentially what she concluded Zille had contravened.
Such powers fall within the mandate of other Chapter 9 institutions such as the Human Rights Commission and not with the public protector.
Mkhwebane’s defence was that she is constitutionally obligated to probe matters brought to her office. Indeed she is correct. However, such an obligation does not at all permit her to overreach beyond her jurisdiction and undermine the sacred principle of the separation of powers.
Mkhwebane’s report against Zille suggests questionable legal capacity and possibly poor judgement on her part.
If successful, Zille’s pending court challenge of Mkhwebane’s findings would be yet another crushing blow to the credibility of an important public office of our democracy.