Protector to argue against costs bill

The Constitutional Court has given public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane the right to argue against an estimated R900,000 legal costs bill she was ordered to pay personally‚ following her disastrous court battle with the Reserve Bank.

The Constitutional Court’s decision to grant Mkhwebane direct access to argue her appeal comes after the high court dismissed her costs order challenge – with costs.

Mkhwebane wants SA’s highest court to rule that the costs order given by three North Gauteng High Court judges “impacts adversely and directly on the exercise by the public protector‚ a Chapter 9 institution‚ of her constitutional power‚ obligations and functions without fear‚ favour or prejudice”.

Mkhwebane is also arguing that the Constitutional Court must set aside the high court findings “that there is a reasonable apprehension that I was biased” and “that I do not fully understand my constitutional duty to be impartial and to perform my functions without fear‚ favour or prejudice”.

It was on the basis of these findings that the high court ordered that Mkhwebane personally pay 15% of the Reserve Bank’s legal costs in its successful challenge to her report on the apartheid-era bailout given to Bankorp.

Mkhwebane had been forced to admit that she was wrong in ordering that the Reserve Bank’s constitutional mandate be changed‚ as part of that report’s remedial action.

But she continued to defend the overall validity of her report. –