Mkhwebane ‘changed report’
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane seemingly altered crucial remedial action in the provisional report on the Vrede dairy farm by predecessor Thuli Madonsela before she released the final report, which has widely been described as a whitewash.
This is revealed in a supplementary affidavit filed by the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) in the High Court in Pretoria, where Casac has filed its application to review and set aside the report.
The report was released in February and has been taken on review by Casac and the DA.
Casac filed an amended notice of motion last week, after it received the record of decision making, in which it emerged that there was a provisional report and that the remedial action which directly implicated officials was altered.
“In the absence of any explanation from the public protector, Casac submits that the only possible inference, which the court should not hesitate to draw, is that she deliberately curtailed the report’s findings and remedial action in an effort to protect department officials and thereby acted for an improper purpose and in bad faith,” Casac executive secretary Lawson Naidoo said in the supplementary affidavit.
The record of the decision, according to Casac, reveals that a Treasury report — which had previously not been made public — pointed to the active involvement of former Free State premier Ace Magashule and former MEC for agriculture Mosebenzi Zwane, in facilitating the unlawful project. It recommended disciplinary action against the then head of the agriculture department Peter Thabethe.
Casac says that Mkhwebane’s report, which was quietly released on the public protector’s website, made no reference to a provisional report having been prepared — as is the custom in such investigations by the public protector — but that the record now shows such a provisional report was concluded by Madonsela.
Casac says of particular concern was that it now appears Mkhwebane altered that provisional report in material ways to exonerate the officials.
Casac says Madonsela’s provisional report also said a proper investigation had to be conducted by the auditor-general.