‘No one called me’: Mkhwebane says she found out about her suspension on TV

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane says she wasn’t personally informed about her suspension and heard the news through the media.

Mkhwebane was suspended by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 9 June 2022, a day after the Public Protector’s office confirmed its investigation into the Phala Phala farm scandal.

Ramaphosa’s decision came ahead of the start of the Section 194 Inquiry on 11 July.

While the Public Protector, on 9 September, successfully challenged her suspension in the Western Cape High Court, she failed to halt the inquiry’s proceedings.

Watch: Mkhwebane says she’s guided by spirit and ethos of other prosecuted women

The president and the Democratic Alliance (DA) have appealed the ruling on Mkhwebane’s suspension in the Constitutional Court (ConCourt), where the judgment in the matter was reserved by the apex court in November.

‘Fell on death ears’

Testifying before the parliamentary inquiry into her fitness to hold office on Wednesday, Mkhwebane explained that she asked Parliament to halt impeachment processes while she challenged her suspension.

She said she did so because the two matters were “linked”.

The Public Protector told the Section 194 Committee that her reasons sent to Ramaphosa on why she should not be suspended “fell on death ears” after she wrote to the president asking him to resolve the issue amicably without going to court.

“It’s unfortunate that the speaker wrote the letter in March and there was then a complaint which was lodged by the ATM [African Transformation Movement] relating to the famous Phala Phala farmgate scandal,” she remarked.

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Mkhwebane previously argued in court that National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s letter to Ramaphosa informing him that Parliament would proceed with the impeachment against the Public Protector triggered her suspension.

On Wednesday, she further revealed that she found out about her suspension through the media.

“Unfortunately on the 9th of June, I saw it on the news again. I was with her grandson who saw my picture on [television]. That’s what transpired. No one called me, no one warned me,” she said.

The Public Protector said she and her legal team were “very shocked” by her suspension because the president’s lawyers had promised to give her a “heads up” about the move.

‘Politically motivated witch-hunt’

Earlier, Mkhwebane laid the blame on the DA and the ANC for initiating the impeachment inquiry process, saying it was “a politically motivated witch-hunt masquerading as a bona fide inquiry under the auspices of section 194 of the Constitution”.

“It is not,” she said.

The Public Protector, who assumed office in October 2016, said the DA never supported her appointment and pointed out that she discovered from the media that the party submitted a motion for her impeachment.

She added that she believed that the inquiry should be focusing on determining her fitness for the office, rather than her removal.

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

“It was like being summarily removed, the worst part is those rules didn’t include the issue of legal representation and I think they were drafted in such a way that it covers the chapter nine institutions but as you go through the letters, the communications from the DA you would see that those rules were drafted specifically for me because there is where in the letter where it says for the removal of the Public Protector and that’s another issue of the removal because this process shouldn’t be for the removal, this process should be for the determination for the fitness to perform your responsibilities… that is still a process, you are not just in a constitutional state, just speak about the removal.

“I think that is what I have picked up in this committee when they are reading for the people to take an oath, they will just say the committee for the removal of the public protector, it’s not a committee for the removal, it’s a committee to determine fitness… allow yourself to be labelled that it means…sometimes I feel it is a predetermined process or an outcome,” Mkhwebane said.

Watch the proceedings below:

The Section 194 Committee was established following the tabling of a motion by the DA in December 2019 for Mkhwebane’s removal from office.

Majority in the National Assembly voted in support of establishing the ad hoc committee in March 2021 after an independent review panel found that there was prima facie evidence of incompetence and misconduct by the Public Protector.

Mkhwebane is expected to testify until 31 March, meanwhile, the committee aims to complete its work by the end of April, including the drafting of a final report.

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