Mkhwebane wants her charges reviewed as perjury case postponed

The Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday postponed the perjury case against embattled Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to September 2021.

This is after Mkhwebane made a brief appearance at the court, where one of her three counts of perjury was withdrawn.

In a statement, National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said the Public Protector’s legal team had requested the court to allow her to make representations for her remaining charges to be reviewed.

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“Following her representations to the Director of Public Prosecutions [DPP] in North Gauteng Division, advocate Sibongile Mzinyathi one of the charges was withdrawn.

“Advocate Mkhwebane’s legal representative has requested the court to allow her to make representations to the National Director of Public Prosecutions, advocate Shamila Batohi, for further review of the remaining charges,” Ngwema said.

Ngwema indicated that the case was postponed to 29 September for the outcome of those representations.

Criminal complaint

The case relates to her investigation into the Absa/Bankorp matter, in which she is accused of lying under oath about her meetings with former president Jacob Zuma.

Accountability Now laid a criminal complaint of perjury against Mkhwebane with the Hawks.

This followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in July 2019 that upheld a Pretoria high court judgment, which found Mkhwebane was dishonest about meetings she had with Zuma in affidavits submitted to the high court and the Pretoria Regional Court in 2017 and 2018.

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Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe