Mkhwebane perjury case postponed to December

The perjury case against suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane was on Wednesday and was postponed to 9 December for a decision on the review application of the remaining two charges in the perjury matter.

Mkhwebane accused of lying under oath

Mkhwebane briefly appeared at the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

The perjury charges relate to her investigation into the bank/Bankorp matter in which she is accused of lying under oath about her meetings with former president Jacob Zuma.

During the court proceedings, Mkhwebane’s legal team told the magistrate, Adrian Bekker that they have sent a review application to the High Court reviewing the decision of the National Director of Public Prosecutions Adv Shamila Batohi on the remaining two charges.

One charge was initially withdrawn.

“There are two charges which are still remaining which she (Batohi) refused to withdraw, so we are taking that matter to court for review,” Mkhwebane.

Mkhwebane said the testimony of Tebogo Kekana (an investigator at the public protector’s office) at the hearing in Parliament clarified what had transpired.

‘This is clear persecution’

“We also do not see why these charges should proceed. This is just clear persecution; on that matter, I also paid personal costs which were not based on the true facts or meeting the right requirements of being biased or not acting in good faith,” she said.

Asked if she thinks that this case is part of the purge to get her out of office, Mkhwebane said “definitely it is”, as she pointed to several significant strides the office had achieved under her leadership.

“If you speak about a person competent and a person who acquired two clean audits, not only two clean audits but with a very improved performance and also the kind of work we have done for the poor and the marginalised,” said Mkhwebane.

“Out of 68 000 cases we received, we have finalised about 58 000 cases. Out of the 412 reports that we have issued, only 26 were taken on review and out of those by February, we only lost 17 of those.

“I would not say lost because we were trying to defend the very same public by opposing the matters, not to say us taking the matter to court.”

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