Public protector has plan to tackle detractors bent on ousting her
PUBLIC Protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane intends to tackle head-on those who want her out of office.
This comes as Parliament has discussed and initiated proceedings aimed at removing her from office as well as re-evaluating Section 194 of the Constitution which deals with the removal of the heads of Chapter 9 institutions.
Mkhwebane yesterday said she would be filing papers in court in the next few weeks over a complaint lodged by Accountability Now in August.
The anti-corruption group, led by Paul Hoffman, laid criminal charges of perjury and defeating the ends of justice against Mkhwebane and has filed a court application seeking an order to declare her unfit for office. The matter stems from the Constitutional Court ruling which criticised her handling of the Absa/Bankorp probe.
“We are opposing (the matter) and are going to be filing our papers soon,” Mkhwebane said, after she released 11 reports at her offices in Pretoria which spoke of the rampant and flawed procurement processes adopted by government departments.
Fielding questions on Parliament’s bid to remove her from office, Mkhwebane said: “I have not been contacted. I’m only reading it through the news like yourselves. So we will respond if I’m given an opportunity.”
In one of the cases, Mkhwebane investigated a complaint by DA MP Briget Masango which stated that former social development Minister Bathabile Dlamini had violated the executive ethics code in her budget speech by saying that Sassa would be taking over the management and control of the payment process for social grants.
Mkhwebane said: “Based on the information and evidence obtained during the investigation, I could not make a finding on the allegation that former minister Bathabile Dlamini had deliberately or inadvertently misled the National Assembly...”
Other reports released and which can be found on the Public Protector’s website, are on corruption within the Compensation Fund and wasteful expenditure by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development.