A Civil society organisation, Democracy Action has started a crowdfunding campaign to help embattled Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane pay the costs as a result of the Constitutional Court Judgment.
The Constitutional Court delivered a scathing judgment in Mkhwebane’s bid to avoid paying a punishing cost order from the High Court.
The court set aside her report into the Reserve Bank and Absa/Bankorp. The High Court in Pretoria held Mkhwebane personally liable for the costs. This could see her forking out about R 900 000 from her own pocket.
Mkhwebane’s supporters are posting amounts they’ve contributed on social media.
‘Democracy is alive and growing’
Some students at the University of the Free State are of the view that what is happening between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane displays the strength of the South African democracy.
They were reacting an announcement by President Ramaphosa, that he was taking the Public Protector’s report on review.
The Public Protector has found that Ramaphosa deliberately misled Parliament and contravened the executive ethics code when he initially said that the Bosasa money was paid to his son.
President Ramaphosa has accused Mkhwebane of breaching the Constitution and other laws, saying her report was fundamentally and factually flawed.
Students believe that this shows that democracy is alive and growing.
“I don’t think is necessarily a squabble, I think it is the test of our democracy and the test of our constitution. It is the Constitutional obligation to investigate, it is the president’s again obligation to receive the report as he has and to make a determination and used one of the constitutional possibilities open to him which is to take it to review,” says one student.
“I believe it is democracy in action because one of the values of democracy is that no one is above the law. So we must not be surprised that the president is investigated,” adds another student.
