WATCH LIVE: Mkhwebane releases public protector reports

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane is releasing a number of investigation reports during her office’s third quarterly media briefing for the 2020-2021 financial year.

She is joined by Deputy Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka.

PP Media Briefing
https://t.co/nKWeuSoJQh

— Public Protector SA (@PublicProtector) December 21, 2020

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Meanwhile, Mkhwebane suffered another blow after the Gauteng High Court set aside her report which found that former South African Revenue Service (Sars) deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay’s early retirement payout was “irrational”.

The 89-page report found that the allegation that the then finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, irregularly approved the early retirement of  Pillay with full retirement benefits and his subsequent retention at Sars was substantiated.

In her findings, Mkhwebane noted six errors of law made by Gordhan that led to her conclusion that Gordhan was guilty of improper conduct.

The court set aside the report, but the cost order has been dismissed.

Last week, Mkhwebane was summoned to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court to face three charges of perjury in January 2021, in a case opened by advocate Paul Hoffman from Accountability Now in 2019.

The case was triggered by a Constitutional Court decision which confirmed an earlier adverse ruling of the High Court in Pretoria regarding Mkhwebane’s handling of her investigation of the apartheid-era loan by the SA Reserve Bank to Bankorp.

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