Reserve Bank warning for public protector
THE SA Reserve Bank has warned the Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, that President Jacob Zuma did not have powers to re-open a completed probe by an investigating agency.
This came yesterday, when the SARB launched another application in the High Court against Mkhwebane over its failure to recover R1.125 billion.
Mkhwebane had said in her report in June she would ask the Special Investigating Unit to recover the R1.125bn that the SARB had failed to recover from Absa. This related to the lifeboat given to Bankorp/Absa by the SARB in the 1990s.
However, in its application yesterday, the Reserve Bank said Absa had paid back every cent.
This is the second application by the SARB, after its first application was heard in the High Court on Tuesday.
In the first application, the SARB challenged Mkhwebane’s findings that its mandate be changed. Mkhwebane did not oppose this application.
However, Mkhwebane is opposing the second application – to recover the R1.125bn from Absa.
Head of legal services at the SARB, Johannes Jurgens de Jager, said Mkhwebane had no basis to ask the SIU to recover the funds.
He said former SIU head Willem Heath had conducted a probe in the 1990s on the matter, and handed the report to then President Thabo Mbeki.
De Jager described the remedial action by Mkhwebane as irrational.
“The remedial action… of the report requires the SIU to approach the president (Jacob Zuma) to re-open and amend the Heath Proclamation,” said De Jager.
“However, the president has no power under the SIU and Special Tribunals Act of 1996 to re-open a completed investi- gation,” he said.
He said once the SIU report had been submitted to the president, it was final.
“Once that step is taken, the investigation authorised by the president is concluded,” he said.
“Once the SIU has conducted an investigation and finally reported on it to the president, those parties affected by the investigation are for purposes of finality and legal certainty entitled to rely on the fact that the matter is closed,” he said.
In the SIU report in the 1990s, it found if the SARB were to launch recoveries against Absa, the process would be lengthy and risky.
De Jager also attacked the CIEX report, which called for the government to recover the R1.125bn from Absa, saying it was flawed.
He described the report as a “bounty hunter’s tender”.
He said the firm was on a fishing expedition when it conducted an investigation for the government on the Bankorp lifeboat, and made wild allegations against individuals and entities.
De Jager also accused Mkhwebane of failing to give the SARB an opportunity to respond to her report when she released it in June.
He said they tried to get her to respond, but their attempts had failed.
Mkhwebane’s spokesperson, Cleo Mosana, said the Public Protector would oppose this application by the SARB.