This is why the incompetent Mkhwebane was appointed

It’s not about whether Busisiwe Mkhwebane should be removed from office. It’s about how the hell did she get appointed in the first place?

In light of the fifth consecutive damning court judgment against her, it’s clear the strategy of weaponising the office of the public protector (PP) against President Cyril Ramaphosa has failed.

Fortunately for Ramaphosa, their most important target, Mkhwebane has proven to be an ineffectual weapon. It’s less of being smitten to oblivion with a teak knobkerrie than being flagellated with a clump of khakibos weeds – a smelly experience but essentially harmless.

The high court this week ruled that in investigating the financing of Ramaphosa’s campaign to become party leader, the “reckless” Mkhwebane had claimed jurisdiction she did not have. She also committed “material misdirections”, reached “irrational and unlawful” conclusions, displayed a “complete lack of basic knowledge of the law” and, in some matters, her findings were either “fundamentally flawed” or simply “unfathomable”.

The judgment is merciless at pointing out “basic errors”, “garble”, and “confusion”. The three judges conclude that Mkhwebane “displays a deep-seated inability, or refusal, to process facts before her in a fair-minded manner”.

Furthermore, she “completely failed to properly analyse and understand the facts and evidence … [and] displayed anything but an open mind”.

Given the searing assessment of her competence and character, it is hardly surprising that Mkhwebane has been stunned into complete silence. The bravado that greeted her previous judicial reversals – press conferences, media releases, and a barrage on social media, all asserting that she would be vindicated on appeal – is this time absent.

Mkhwebane’s selection as PP – after initially not making the shortlist – must be seen against the ANC’s willingness to subvert the PP’s office, meant to be one of the guard posts of our democracy, to act as hit squad against its enemies. Mkhwebane was not appointed because of her legal acumen but because of her readiness to be deployed by former president Jacob Zuma’s administration as a political assassin.

Mkhwebane’s cringingly amateurish curriculum vitae is that of a mid- to senior-level public service bureaucrat, but there’s nothing stellar in her earlier career in various government departments. She does, however, mention two merit awards and “for the past 20 years of professional experience have been working on Ms Work, Ms Excel, AND Ms PowerPoint” (sic).

Mkhwebane holds a BProc LLB degree from the University of the North and two business law diplomas from Rand Afrikaans University. At some unspecified date she became an advocate – clearly slipping under the Bar rather than clearing it – and for the past 10 years has been working on an MBL at Unisa.

The CV details a professionally mediocre background that has ill-equipped her for such an important position.

It’s time for her to go. Even her deputies have started calling publicly for her departure. Her parliamentary recall is almost certain – but probably kicking and screaming.

Given an annual salary of R2.3 million, the expectation of an end-of-service gratuity estimated at about R40.2 million and zero career prospects in the real world, expect the protector to expend every effort to protect her job.

William Saunderson-Meyer.

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