Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
Suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has slammed “misleading” reports about the “alleged” decision of the Section 194 Committee to recommend her removal from office.
This after the majority of members of the Section 194 Committee agreed on Friday to recommend to Parliament that Mkhwebane be removed from her office.
The committee met on Friday to consider and adopt a draft report on the impeachment inquiry proceedings.
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The meeting comes after the committee found the public protector guilty on all four charges of misconduct and incompetence last month.
Commenting on the reports, Mkhwebane claimed certain “facts” had been swept under the carpet before reaching the decision to recommend her removal.
Firstly, according to Mkhwebane, the draft report was discussed and adopted when the “committee was fully aware that my attorneys had withdrawn on 3 August due to their ill treatment at the hands of the chairperson and the committee.”
“Following this development Public Protector South Africa via its attorneys, the State Attorney, supplied me yesterday with the list of attorneys on the PPSA panel so that I can exercise my rights.
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“While I was busy with that process the Committee decided to continue with its deliberations and produced an illegal ‘draft report’ promising to send it to me for comments. How can I comment on it while I am still engaged with PPSA in tve process to identify and choose my legal representatives? It looks like the right hand clearly does not know what the left hand is doing.”
Mkhwebane further questioned the decision of the chairperson not to recuse himself following allegations of extortion against him.
“The process was also fatally flawed in that no proper and fair hearing was conducted, but the DA and ANC partnership abused its majority to rubber stamp the non recusal decision,” she said.
Last month, chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi refused to recuse himself from presiding over the inquiry after Mkhwebane filed a second application.
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The public protector sought Dyantyi’s removal over bribery allegations levelled against the committee’s chairperson by Mkhwebane’s husband, David Skosana.
Skosana laid a complaint with the police in June, alleging that late ANC MP Tina Joemat-Pettersson had approached him to elicit bribes for herself, Dyantyi and ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina in exchange for making Mkhwebane’s impeachment inquiry “go away”.
While Dyantyi has denied the allegations, Mkhwebane has laid a complaint with Parliament’s Joint Committee on Ethics and Members’ Interests.
Mkhwebane further claimed she had not been given the opportunity to respond to the draft report.
“Worse still I was still in the middle of my testimony. By the same token I cannot respond until the issue of my legal representation has been resolved,” she said.
“However, it seems as if the media and everyone properly understood that the outcome is a foregone conclusion and that the Committee will not change its mind irrespective of what representations may be made, the recommendation will be sent to the National Assembly. The ‘opportunity’ which will be granted for my comments is another example of going through the motions and paying lip service to fairness.”
Additional reporting by Molefe Seeletsa
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