Mkhwebane made ‘haphazard’ conclusions in her Bankorp report – Gigaba

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has slammed public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane over her controversial Bankorp/Absa report, accusing her of having made “haphazard” conclusions and relying on “random‚ unsubstantiated and selected” documents.

According to a TimesLIVE report, Gigaba filed his second supplementary founding affidavit in the Pretoria High Court last week, in which he slated Mkhwebane for overstepping her powers and failing to conduct a diligent investigation that complied with her “statutory and constitutional mandate”.

“She reached conclusions of fact and law without proper appreciation and sound analysis of the documents that were before her. She failed to ask for information from relevant parties to assist her investigation‚” Gigaba reportedly stated in his affidavit.

The finance minister has described the public protector’s findings as “generalised‚ random and hasty”. He also offered an invitation to Mkhwebane to explain which documentation she had received from “official” sources she refers to in her report, but did not name them.

Mkhwebane in her report, released in June, into a bailout granted by the SA Reserve Bank (Sarb) to Bankorp Limited – which was subsequently bought by Absa in 1992 – criticised the government and Sarb for failing to recover more than one billion rand from the bank.

Among her controversial remedial actions was a directive for parliament to amend the constitution to remove the Sarb’s mandate to keep inflation in check, which was set aside on August 15 after the central bank challenged the recommendation in court.

The Sarb‚ Absa‚ parliament and Gigaba are all challenging her findings.

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