Cape Town - Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane on Thursday addressed the parliamentary committee investigating her fitness for office on what her lawyer, Senior Counsel Dali Mpofu, described as the “meatier issues” of her evidence.
Mpofu, who set the scene for Mkhwebane’s evidence when her testimony began on Wednesday, immediately got into the issue of the CR17 report on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2017 campaign bank statements involving state prisons contractor Bosasa.
Mkhwebane gave the background of how the complaint got to her desk. She said she received two complaints on the issue, one from then-DA leader Mmusi Maimane and another from EFF MP Floyd Shivambu.
The complainants claimed that the president had misled Parliament and had breached the Ethics Code when he told it that Bosasa (later Africa Global Operations, AGO) made a payment of R500 000 not to his CR17 campaign for president, but to his son Andile for work done for Bosasa.
In 2021 a Constitutional Court judgment ruled that the public protector had no authority to investigate the CR17 campaign, given that this was not an organ of state and therefore not within the public protector’s remit.
Earlier, Mpofu assured committee chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi that Mkhwebane’s legal team was closely following the issue of their funding with the Office of the Public Protector (PPSA).
Earlier this month the PPSA indicated it would not fund Mkhwebane’s legal fees beyond March 30 due to lack of funds.
Deputy Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka wrote to Mkhwebane, saying the inquiry had exceeded its initial scheduled period and was still ongoing.
Gcaleka said: “The PPSA has already been billed and paid an amount in excess of R10 million, which is more than double the amount it had originally committed, without the fee agreement being revised as per the undertaking between the parties.”
Mpofu also flagged Mkhwebane’s legal team’s concerns that there might not be enough time allocated for her to give all her evidence, but said they would address the issue with the committee’s evidence leaders.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za