Does Busi have a hidden agenda?
She has succeeded in muddying the waters to the extent that some people don’t believe a word she has said, while others won’t challenge her at all.
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane is seen during a press briefing held at her offices, 4 December 2017, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles
The more details emerge of the latest full frontal assault on Pravin Gordhan by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, the more bizarre her conduct and investigating abilities seem to become.
According to the Sunday Times yesterday, her conclusions that Gordhan established an illegal investigative unit at Sars were based on allegations made by a man who now denies he made them and who has never been interviewed by her.
It goes without saying that way of working is no way to get to the truth. Last week, other experts pointed out that, in other “inferences” Mkhwebane had drawn in her probe into Gordhan, the public protector had dismissed denials of allegations and the lack of evidence as proof that things actually happened.
In that connection, it is stating the obvious that her lack of logic is not something you’d expect in a quasi-judicial official.
But she has succeeded in muddying the waters to the extent that some people don’t believe a word she has said, while others won’t challenge her at all.
And, in the confusion, a cloud not only still hangs over Gordhan, but the whole process of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s “new dawn” appears to be stalling.
Perhaps that was her intention in the first place…
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