Calls on Ramaphosa to suspend Mkhwebane

Civil society is calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to suspend Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane now that the Constitutional Court has put the CR17 report to bed.

Once a parliamentary process to remove a Chapter 9 institution head is initiated – as has been done in Mkhwebane’s case – the president has the power to suspend him or her.

Ramaphosa previously indicated he would not exercise that power against Mkhwebane, though, because of the then pending litigation between the two over the CR17 report and the conflict of interest this created.

But now – as the executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac), Lawson Naidoo, pointed out at a panel discussion hosted by the NorthWest University (NWU) Business School this week – the path appears clear.

“And the president needs to act – not just because he is no longer conflicted but because it is the right thing to do in the public interest,” Naidoo said.

Titled Constitutional Conundrums and the Economics of Trust, the discussion focused mainly on the Constitutional Court judgment handed down on Tuesday finding former president Jacob Zuma in contempt of court and sentencing him to 15 months behind bars.

This was over his refusal to testify at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture – despite there being a court order compelling him to do so. But this week has been a busy one in the country’s apex court.

On Thursday, it also dismissed the appeal Mkhwebane brought against the High Court in Pretoria’s setting aside of her controversial CR17 report.

In the report, Mkhwebane had found Ramaphosa misled parliament about the R500 000 donation then Bosasa chief executive Gavin Watson made to his 2017 campaign for the ANC presidency.

Last year, the high court found Ramaphosa’s error had not been a “wilful” one and overturned the report. And on Thursday, the Constitutional Court agreed and upheld the decision in a bruising judgment which raised questions about Mkhwebane’s grasp of the law.

Asked about this ruling and about the impeachment proceedings Mkhwebane is currently facing in parliament, Naidoo believed “given the damage that has been done with all these losses in the courts, the public interest demands she is suspended”.

“I mean there are just far too many cases in our various courts, including the highest court,” added Naidoo.

“And this is not the first time the courts have been required to pronounce on her inability to grasp the law and apply it properly.”

Advocate Paul Hoffman, who also heads up anticorruption nonprofit organisation Accountability Now, said with the president no longer locked in litigation with the public protector, he was now
able to exercise his power to suspend her while the parliamentary process unfolded.

And he was adamant this was what Ramaphosa should do.

Hoffman highlighted that Mkhwebane is also facing perjury charges in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court and a complaint to the Legal Practice Council.

“She must be suspended,” he said.

– bernadettew@citizen.co.za