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A Parliamentary discussion on whether or not there was a need to institute an inquiry into Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office was brought to a premature halt as she failed to appear before the justice committee.
Parliament’s portfolio committee on justice and correctional services met on Wednesday at the instruction of National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete with the mandate of discussing Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold the crucial post.
The Democratic Alliance, who has been very vocal on their desire to see Mkhwebane vacate her office, wrote to Mbete last year asking her to institute an inquiry.
Mkhwebane was a no-show, however, and failed to send her deputy or a delegation of senior personnel from her office to attend the proceedings on her behalf.
According to the committee’s chairperson, Dr Mathole Motshekga, he received a letter from Mkhwebane on Tuesday which merely stated that she would not be able to attend due to a “family emergency” which “she tried in vain to rearrange”.
The DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach rubbished the letter, saying it was clear that Mkhwebane had no intentions of ever attending the proceedings.
“In the letter Mkhwebane says she tried to reschedule a family emergency, what sort of emergency can be rescheduled,” questioned Breytenbach.
The ANC’s Madipoane Mothapo said it was a serious concern to the committee that Mkhwebane did not, at the very least, send a delegation to represent her in her absence since “legislation is clear that if the Public Protector is unavailable the deputy can stand in”.
The committee members were all in agreement that the Public Protector’s office was “not about an individual but a collective”, meaning that if Mkhwebane knew beforehand that she could not attend, she should have appointed someone to represent her.
Breytenbach went as far as saying that the committee had dealt with Mkhwebane’s deputy Kevin Malunga and he “was fully competent to attend to matters in the former’s absence”.
DA MP Werner Horn said the fact that Mkhwebane sent a letter instead of calling the committee was an indication she held Parliament in contempt.
“I don’t think it would be an embellishment to say this Public Protector has gone rogue,” said Horn.
Due to Mkhwebane’s absence on Wednesday the committee resolved to put in abeyance until next week the decision on whether there was a need to institute an inquiry on the complaint against the Public Protector, and therefore put in question her fitness to hold office.
Mkhwebane had requested, through the letter to the committee, that the sitting be rescheduled to July 5 or July 21, a request that was met with fury as committee members demanded that she be hauled in to the proceedings or appoint someone to represent her office on June 13.
In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, Mkhwebane attempted to explain why she did not send a delegation.
She said she was of the view that the agenda items required her personal attendance.
“Reluctant to send a delegation of officials without executive authority, Advocate Mkhwebane opted to humbly request the committee to defer the meeting to a later date,” the statement read.
Despite the “short notice” of the invitation, Mkhwebane had planned to attend the committee’s meeting, and travel arrangements to that effect had ensued, it continued.
“However, due to the unforeseen family emergency, she was forced to make a late cancellation of her intended attendance and rendered an apology to the committee.
“This apology was dispatched on Tuesday afternoon. Advocate Mkhwebane wishes to indicate that this was the first occasion she missed the attendance of the committee meetings.”
Damning court judgments
Initially, the DA – who was the only party that did not support Mkhwebane’s appointment to replace former public protector Thuli Madonsela – opposed her nomination, suggesting that she was a loyalist to former president Jacob Zuma.
However in the letter to Mbete submitted by DA chief whip John Steenhuisen, the party cites damning court judgments against Mkhwebane as the motivating factor for their call to investigate her fitness to hold office.
The North Gauteng High Court in February set aside Mkhwebane’s report on apartheid bailout money for Bankorp – which was bought by Absa – and ordered her to pay 15% of the costs in her personal capacity.
Mkhwebane had released the Bankorp-Ciex report in June in which her office had found that the South African Reserve Bank’s (Sarb) R1.125bn bailout for Bankorp between 1985 and 1995 was unlawful. The report further indicated that Absa should pay back the money, having bought Bankorp in 1992.
In March, Mkhwebane was grilled by MPs over her failure to investigate ANC politicians, Ace Magashule and Mosebenzi Zwane, for their alleged role in the Estina Dairy Farm scandal, in which about R250 million was reportedly looted from the Free State department of agriculture’s coffers.
Mkhwebane was also expected to brief the committee on her office’s rules and policy in relation to the appointment of a special advisor.
There has been an allegation that she made appointments to her office outside the dictates of the Public Finance Management Act.
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