Former investigator in PP’s office testifies about removal of politician’s names from reports

A former investigator in the Office of the Public Protector has told MPs that he did not think it odd when Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane removed the names of prominent politicians, such as former president Thabo Mbeki, from her reports.

Advocate Livhuwani Tshiwalule appeared before Parliament’s Section 194 committee looking into suspended Advocate Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.

Tshiwalule was the lead investigator in the CIEX report.

Before he left the office in 2017, he handed over a draft report to Mkhwebane which contained the names of politicians.

But the names were removed in the final report.

This is what transpired between Advocate Tshiwalule and DA MP Kevin Mileham.

Mileham: “Do you know … [who] removed the three TMs, [former] president Thabo Mbeki, [former] finance minister, Trevor Manuel and then governor Tito Mboweni?”

Tshiwalule: “When [the] report came back to me, some of [the] paragraphs [were] removed. I didn’t even ask her why it [they were] … removed.”

Mileham: “Quite [a] big a step, from having remedial action to admonish these three?”

Tshiwalule: “Yes I agree”.

The video below is reporting on Advocate Mkhwebane’s impeachment hearing:

Request to subpoena President Cyril Ramaphosa

Parliament’s Section 194 committee says it will communicate in due course regarding a request for President Cyril Ramaphosa to appear before it.

Mkhwebane’s legal representative Dali Mpofu has confirmed that he has written to the committee to subpoena President Ramaphosa.

One of the reports by Mkhwebane which has come under the spotlight during the Parliamentary inquiry, is her report on the CR17 campaign, in which Mkhwebane found that the President had misled Parliament with regard to his African National Congress (ANC) election campaign.

However, the Constitutional Court found that Ramaphosa did not mislead Parliament.

The court also found that the Public Protector did not have the authority to investigate intra-party elections.

The video below is reporting on Advocate Mkhwebane’s impeachment hearing: