Parliament to hold inquiry into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office

Parliament’s portfolio committee on justice and correctional services has on Tuesday agreed to the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) request to hold an inquiry into public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.

This comes after the DA wrote to speaker Baleka Mbete last month asking parliament to begin a process to remove Mkhwebane.

The public protector has been under fire from opposition parties following the release of her Absa report in which she recommended that parliament change the constitution to amend the powers of the South African Reserve Bank.

This recommendation received negative response from parliament, Absa, Sarb and political parties.

On Tuesday, the committee released a statement saying the matter was put to a vote after its chairperson, Mathole Motshekga, recommended that the committee consider referring the matter back to the speaker.

“The request was initially made by the DA to the speaker and then referred to the committee for it to deal with the matter. Dr Motshekga highlighted the huge workload of the committee, including outstanding legislation that needs to be finalised. Thus, he was unsure whether this committee will have the necessary time to deal with the matter and also whether the committee was the right forum or competent authority to deal with such a matter.

“He proposed that the committee refer the matter back to the speaker, proposing that an ad-hoc committee be appointed to deal with it. According to him, the appointment of the public protector was done by an ad-hoc committee and, therefore, an inquiry into the removal should be done by an ad-hoc committee.”

Motshekga, said should the committee be in favour of conducting the inquiry, he would likely have to recuse himself, as the remedial action by the Mkhwebane stated that parliament and the chairperson of the committee should change the constitution to amend the powers and mandate of Sarb.

“This view was supported by some members of the committee. However, after a short caucus, the majority felt that the committee is the correct forum/mechanism to deal with such an inquiry, as it performed oversight over the work of the office of the public protector.

“The committee further resolved to hold these meetings outside of normal parliamentary hours, after hours or over weekends, should there be a need for it.”