Ramaphosa ‘not rushing to suspend Mkhwebane’
President Cyril Ramaphosa harbours “no ill feelings” towards Busisiwe Mkhwebane and has “been more than accommodating towards the public protector in not wanting to rush” a possible suspension process against her, he said in court papers on Tuesday.
Ramaphosa was answering Mkhwebane’s urgent court bid to prevent what she called her imminent suspension, saying that the president is acting in bad faith and alongside a “choreographed move” by the speaker of parliament.
The court application followed correspondence from the speaker to the president that parliament had recommenced an impeachment process against Mkhwebane after its path was cleared by the Constitutional Court. Ramaphosa then wrote to Mkhwebane asking her for submissions on why he should not suspend her.
Mkhwebane went urgently to the high court in Cape Town last week, asking it to prohibit the president from taking any steps to suspend her and for orders to prevent parliament from moving ahead with its impeachment process — pending part B of her case, which comprises constitutional challenges to the conduct of the president, speaker and parliament’s impeachment committee.
Mkhwebane said Ramaphosa could not lawfully suspend her because he has “multiple conflicts of interest” arising from the following investigations:
● The “Bosasa/CR17 scandal”, whose investigation and report were set aside as unlawful by the An Constitutional investigation Court.“into serious ● allegations of judicial capture” by the Anti-Poverty Forum.
● The complaint related to the way Gauteng judge president Dunstan Mlambo came to be appointed to act at the Constitutional Court.
● A complaint by MP Mervyn Dirks that Ramaphosa had violated the executive ethics code by not referring what he knew about the use of state monies for internal party fundraising.
● Allegations about the use of an official aircraft to ferry ANC national executive committee members to Zimbabwe.
“The fact that the president is, or has been, under investigation by the office of the public protector for one or more or all of the above-mentioned allegations of serious or impeachable misconduct disqualifies him” from participating in a removal process, said Mkhwebane.
But Ramaphosa said there is no conflict of interest and that the power to suspend the public protector is one entrusted to him by the constitution.
He said it could never be the purpose of the constitution that any probe by the public protector of the president would preclude him from suspending her.
In addition, the constitutional duty on the president to avoid conflicts of interest related to conflicts between his official responsibilities and his “private interests”. All the investigations Mkhwebane refer to do not relate to his private interests, he said.
“I should say in this regard, I harbour no ill feelings towards the public protector for her investigations In instances where I believe that the public protector had erred, I challenged her and was vindicated thereon. That was the end of the matter.”
Dealing with the specifics of the investigations cited by Mkhwebane, Ramaphosa said none of these created a conflict of interest. The Bosasa/CR17 probe and report were set aside by court. Regarding the ongoing litigation over the CR17 bank records, this was a fight between the EFF and the CR17 campaign and not between the public protector and the president, he said.
The complaint of judicial capture was not made against him and had misquoted Mlambo, said Ramaphosa.
On Dirks’s complaint, Ramaphosa detailed what he had told the standing committee on public accounts, that the only knowledge he had of the use of public funds was what was in the public domain and rumours in the organisation.
On the Zimbabwe aircraft complaint, he said he had not been aware of the ANC members being ferried on the official aircraft and had therefore requested a report on it from former defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
After her report, the president had sanctioned the minister for her conduct, deducting three months’ salary to be paid to the Solidarity Fund. Ramaphosa said he was surprised this remained a live issue 18 months later.
Ramaphosa took issue with Mkhwebane’s allegation of bad faith and that he is acting in a “hurried” fashion.
In fact, he went to “great lengths” to accommodate her, giving an undertaking that he would not decide on her suspension before April 26.