Public protector asks Ramaphosa to discipline Gigaba

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has heaped further pressure on embattled Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba, finding that he violated the executive ethics code and lied under oath.

Earlier in February, the High Court in Pretoria handed Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba a bitter blow to his hopes of remaining in office when it handed down judgment finding that he had lied under oath in his testimony while he was home affairs minister in his first stint.

The Democratic Alliance then referred him to the public protector.

The matter before court related to an aviation company, Fireblade, owned by the Oppenheimer family, which had wanted to open a private international terminal at OR Tambo International Airport.

Judge Neil Tuchten found that the minister had been deliberate in his untruths. “The minister has committed a breach of the Constitution so serious that I could characterise it as a violation.”

The company had sued Gigaba for allegedly reneging on his pledge to make officials available to them to staff their customs and immigration facility. Gigaba denied that he had approved the terminal, but the court ultimately found against him.

The minister said outside parliament in Cape Town, shortly before delivering his one and only budget speech as finance minister, that he would take the matter on appeal and his lawyers were working on the case because “at no stage was there an agreement with Fireblade. Legally you cannot have a private terminal for a family.”

His appeal against the judgment was then dismissed in the Supreme Court of Appeal with costs.

Mkhwebane recommended on Wednesday that President Cyril Ramaphosa should now take disciplinary action against Gigaba.

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, DA MP John Steenhuisen called on Ramaphosa to fire Gigaba.

“In finding that my allegations against Gigaba are substantiated, the public protector has instructed the president to take action within 14 days and has instructed the speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, to refer him to the joint committee on ethics and members’ interests within the same time period.

“The DA has repeatedly called for constitutional delinquent Gigaba to be sacked, yet inexplicably he has remained a fixture in the cabinets of both Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa. This is why we are challenging the president’s decision to appoint Gigaba to his cabinet in court.

“Ramaphosa’s retention of errant ministers and his failure to take action against them is further proof that the fundamental nature of the ANC has not changed since the recall of Jacob Zuma. The party remains an organisation whose leaders act with impunity because there is no genuine accountability.

“We would like to remind the president that the findings of the Public Protector are binding unless challenged in court, and encourage him to finally put an end to Gigaba’s scandal-prone and frequently dishonest tenure.

“Gigaba’s sacking will not rub out all his mistakes, but will finally bring to an end one of the most inglorious careers of any cabinet minister.”

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