Reserve Bank goes on attack against ‘biased’ protector
IN A NEW affidavit filed in the high court in Pretoria, Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane is accused of being biased and undermining the independence of the South African Reserve Bank, it emerged yesterday.
The affidavit by counsel for the Reserve Bank, highlights Mkhwebane’s meetings with President Jacob Zuma’s legal advisers and the State Security Agency, just weeks before her final report on her probe into the Reserve Bank’s 1985 bailout of Bankorp, now Absa bank, was released.
The affidavit describes the meeting with the Presidency’s legal team as “highly irregular”.
“The meeting traversed the public protector’s proposed remedial action to amend the constitution to deprive the Reserve Bank of its role in protecting the value of the currency.
“This is an aspect of the remedial action that had nothing to do with the Presidency. There is no legitimate basis on which this ought to have been discussed with the Presidency,” the affidavit stated.
The Reserve Bank contends that Mkhwebane altered “substantially her remedial action” in her preliminary report, without allowing the Reserve Bank and others to be given the right of reply.
In the affidavit, the bank took strong exception to its mandate being discussed with the Presidency, as the protector is constitutionally obliged to conduct her probes independently and without bias.
Mkhwebane also did not provide a transcript of the interviews with the President’s legal advisers or with the State Security Agency.
A few handwritten notes from the public protector were provided, including one that deals with the “vulnerability” of the Reserve Bank.
“It is unclear on what possible basis the vulnerability (and vulnerability to whom) of the Reserve Bank was relevant to the public protector’s investigation into the CIEX report,” the affidavit said.
“The fact that the topic was even discussed indicates that the public protector’s investigation was aimed at undermining the Reserve Bank.
“It also indicates that by May 2017, the investigation had turned from the question of whether government had implemented the CIEX report, to an attack on the Reserve Bank.”
The bank called on Mkhwebane to provide a transcript of meetings and to explain the omissions from her record and defend herself against the central bank’s allegations.
Failure to do so would result in the bank submitting new grounds for review, including that the public protector’s recommendations were made for “an ulterior motive or purpose”, that Mkhwebane was “biased or reasonably suspected of bias” and that the probe was “procedurally unfair”.
In June, Mkhwebane released her report in which she directed Absa be ordered to repay R1.12 billion regarding the bailout.
She went further to recommend that the constitution be amended to change the Reserve Bank’s mandate from protecting the local currency to ensuring the socio-economic well-being of citizens.
In August her recommendation on the bank was set aside by the North Gauteng High Court.