Public protector Mkhwebane back in court for perjury case

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane is due back in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday morning, where she is expected to find out whether she will stand trial on three counts of perjury.

During her last court appearance in March, the case was postponed to June after Mkhwebane’s lawyer, advocate Dali Mpofu, told the court they were waiting for a response from the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) on their representations arguing for the charges to be quashed.

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State prosecutor Connie Erasmus did not oppose the postponement and maintained that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had a strong case against Mkhwebane.

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 (ConCourt’s) ruling in July 2019 that upheld a Pretoria high court judgment which found the Public Protector was dishonest about meetings she had with Zuma in affidavits submitted to the high court and the Pretoria Regional Court in 2017 and 2018.

During Mkhwebane’s court appearance in January, Mpofu told the court they would challenge the prosecution for perjury on the grounds that the case was “frivolous and contrived”.

NPA spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said at the time they were ready to go to trial.

“The NDPP has to apply her mind when she sees the docket. We don’t know what the accused is going to say to the NDPP but it is within her functions to look at what they say and what the director of public prosecutions in Pretoria has looked at and weighed and decide whether it is appropriate to proceed,” Ngwema said.

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