Public Protector given right to appeal high court’s R900k costs ruling
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‚ after her battle with the Reserve Bank.
Mkhwebane wants South Africa’s highest court to rule that the costs order given by three Pretoria High Court judges “impacts adversely and directly on the exercise by the public protector of her constitutional power‚ obligations and functions without fear‚ favour or prejudice”.
Mkhwebane was forced to admit that she’d got it wrong when she ordered that the Reserve Bank’s constitutional mandate must be changed‚ as part of that report’s remedial action. But she continued to defend the overall validity of her report in which she ordered the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to reopen its earlier investigation into the apartheidera lifeboat granted to Bankorp “in order to recover misappropriated public funds unlawfully given to Absa Bank in the amount of R1.125bn”.
The North Gauteng High Court later overturned the report in its entirety. It found that Mkhwebane did not fully understand her constitutional duty to be impartial.
The court expressed disquiet over Mkhwebane’s meetings with the presidency and the State Security Agency (SSA) over her Bankorp investigation.
The high court expressed concern that Mkhwebane had met with the SSA and the presidency less than two weeks before she released her far- reaching Bankorp report‚ without disclosing this to the Reserve Bank or Absa.
“Having regard to all these considerations‚ we are of the view that a reasonable‚ objective and informed person‚ taking into account all these facts‚ would reasonably have an apprehension that the public protector would not have brought an impartial mind to bear on the issues before her.”