Mkhwebane inquiry: Madonsela says she didn’t sign any reports on CIEX, Vrede

Former public protector Thuli Madonsela has maintained that she did not issue any reports on the CIEX and Vrede dairy farm investigations.

On Tuesday, Madonsela continued with her testimony before the parliamentary impeachment inquiry into her successor, Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

Mkhwebane stands accused of unlawfully recommending the amendment of the constitutional mandate of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) in the CIEX final report which was released in June 2017.

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According to the evidence heard before the Section 194 Committee, Mkhwebane’s remedial action on changing the mandate came almost word-for-word from the State Security Agency (SSA).

Her lawyer, advocate Dali Mpofu, previously stated that the suspended public protector had asked for the SSA’s input on the wording of the SARB mandate amendment to avoid “economic instability”.

Mkhwebane also has been accused of ordering her office to remove the negative findings against then Free State Premier Ace Magashule and his then agriculture MEC Mosebenzi Zwane in the Vrede dairy report.

The two reports have been scrutinised by the courts.

No provisional or final reports

Madonsela on Monday told the committee that she did not complete the CIEX report before her term ended in October 2016.

The former public protector explained that when she worked on the report there had been no discussion for parliament to alter the Reserve Bank’s constitutional mandate.

She also revealed that investigators at the Public Protector’s office had initially declined to conduct the CIEX investigation, but she decided otherwise after receiving information elsewhere.

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Continuing with her testimony on Tuesday, Madonsela confirmed that she did not issue a final or provisional report on the CIEX matter.

She also said she did not leave a final or provisional report regarding the Vrede dairy investigation either.

Madonsela said she had not signed any report when she left office and handed over both the CIEX and Vrede investigations to Mkhwebane.

“It was not a provisional report in the status of a provisional report of the public protector. In other words neither of them had been [assessed] by the quality assurance team nor signed by me,” she said.

“A provisional report is a signed document by the Public Protector.”

Watch the proceedings below:

Questions on CIEX

Madonsela was then questioned by members of the Section 194 committee, with the African Transformation Movement’s (ATM) Vuyo Zungula asking if it would be unreasonable to review the Reserve Bank’s mandate to protect ordinary people.

“The mandate I spoke about is the mandate to regulate banks and lending,” she responded.

The former public protector said she was of the view that reviewing the bank’s lending practices would not be unreasonable.

“There would a logical connection with the wrong because a remedy corrects a wrong and as the public protector we used to talk about righting the wrongs of the state.”

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Madonsela also disputed Zungula’s suggestion that she misled the committee by stating that she never involved the SSA, although she admitted to interviewing Billy Masetlha, who served as an intelligence chief.

“When Mr Masetlha was interviewed, he was no longer with the SSA. As I said yesterday, he was interviewed purely because he had been the one asked, as the head of the predecessor of the State Security Agency, to issue the contract [to CIEX].”

Question on Vrede dairy

Meanwhile, GOOD MP Brett Herron asked Madonsela whether she was unhappy that the draft reports regarding the Vrede dairy project investigation had not implicated any politicians.

The former public protector in her response explained that she turned down the reports because no one was mentioned.

Madonsela denied Herron’s assertion that the investigator who initially led the Vrede investigation had not made findings against politicians and it was only after she got involved that such findings were made.

“The very first draft [report] mentioned the involvement of [former] premier [Ace] Magashule,” she said.

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The committee on Monday heard that Magashule visited Madonsela for a cup of tea at her office and told her that Zwane could assist in the investigation.

Madonsela sought to provide clarity on the matter on Tuesday.

“When I met [Magashule], he didn’t say MEC Zwane is implicated… he said MEC Zwane was at the centre of [the Vrede project] and has all the answers.”

Madonsela has concluded with her testimony.