Mkhwebane cries ‘women abuse’ against ConCourt judgments

The parliamentary Section 194 Inquiry into her removal was a “political witch-hunt”, suspended Public Protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane said on Wednesday as she began her testimony.

Mkhwebane’s woes began following an independent panel’s findings of prima facie evidence of misconduct and incompetence against her.

‘Retaliation and revenge’

Regarding her impeachment inquiry, Mkhwebane said she did not “for a second, believe this process represented a genuine impeachment process”.

“It is crucial to put my evidence into its true and proper perspective by calling out this process for what it is and what it is not, in my honest opinion,” she said.

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According to Mkhwebane, she found out about the motion for an inquiry into her fitness from the media.

Watch: Mkhwebane addresses the issue of wasting taxpayers’ money

She then wrote to former speaker of the National Assembly Thandi Modise to inform her of the unfairness of the process.

“On the 9 June, I saw it on the news again. No-one called me, no one warned me,” she said.

Inquiry evidence leaders were also probing accusations that Mkhwebane failed “intentionally or in a grossly negligent manner to prevent fruitless, wasteful and unauthorised public expenditure in legal costs” by her office.

Mkhwebane said the ANC was driven by “retaliation and revenge” for her investigation into their president for the CR17/Bosasa and Phala Phala farm scandals.

‘Nothing to do with accountability’

She said the Democratic Alliance (DA) was punishing her for doing her job and the ruling party was assisting them.

The motion for the process was lodged by DA’s then chief whip Natasha Mazzone in 2020.

“This whole process is also a vanity ‘special project’ of the DA aimed at scoring political points as the first party to have caused a head of Chapter 9 institution to face impeachment proceedings,” she said.

“This process has nothing to do with accountability. It has nothing to do with the constitution of South Africa or the rule of law. It is a politically motivated witch-hunt masquerading as a bona fide inquiry.

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“It is a racially motivated campaign born out of the fear of real change which might actually benefit the poorest and most marginalised members of the public who are, in the main black, at the expense of those who benefit the most from an untransformed economic status quo, who are in the main white and the backbone constituency of the DA.”

Watch: Mkhwebane says cause of all her troubles is DA

Mkhwebane also accused the Constitutional Court of woman abuse after it ruled she “ought to pay costs in her personal capacity” after her application for it to reconsider its dismissal of her rescission application (related to the impeachment inquiry rules).