The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) have expressed their opposition to Parliament’s decision to continue with the inquiry into Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
The announcement that the Section 194 investigation will go ahead was made on Tuesday despite Mkhwebane’s application to the Constitutional Court to reconsider its earlier decision which paved the way for the inquiry to be resumed.
Parliament’s legal adviser Siviwe Njikela told the committee that Mkhwebane had sent a letter threatening to interdict Parliament from going ahead with the investigation but that it had not yet been received.
“From our reading of the correspondence that we have obtained, the Public Protector seems to be saying after today’s meeting, depending on what the committee decides to do-they may file an urgent application to interdict the inquiry that the committee intends to proceed with. And we have no difficulty with that.”
Njikela adds, “We recognised the right that the Public Protector has to exhaust whatever legal avenue is available but we have not received that application. We are hoping that in the next couple of days or hours that application would come. So as I am speaking to you chairperson, all we have in front of us is the application for rescission of the decision of the Constitutional Court. There is no interdict or application for an interdict.”
EFF leader Julius Malema and ATM leader Vuyolwethu Zungula asked the committee to wait for the outcome of Mkhwebane’s Concourt application before resuming its work.
Malema supported by Zungula had this to say, “I think that if we want this process to be a respectable process and that we are not projected as persuading certain agendas except to arrive at what is really an objective of this committee, surely the most acceptable thing to do will be to give the Constitutional Court process a chance to proceed with the hope that the Constitutional Court will resolve this matter quickly. And once that is done, we can proceed. We are really not in a hurry to arrive at achieving justice.”
VIDEO: Committee for Section 194 Inquiry meets on Public Protector’s fitness to hold office
