The legal representatives of Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane and former Public Works MEC Babalo Madikizela are arguing in the High Court in Bhisho for the remedial action of the Public Protector against them to be set aside.
Last year, the Public Protector said that Mabuyane, Madikizela and the provincial African National Congress (ANC) were found to have benefitted to the tune of R450 000, R350 000 and R280 000 respectively from the R1.1 million siphoned from the Mbizana Municipality.
The money was allegedly linked to the memorial service of struggle stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Advocate Kenton Kats, representing Madikizela, opened the proceedings.
“And we sit here today with an explanation of why she signed two different reports, grammatical errors, extra mural action, taking out a paragraph. How did it happen? And your lordship will scratch his head when he goes to chambers saying I still don’t understand this. They say it was a draft report put inadvertently on the website, what does that mean? Does it mean that somebody put a piece of paper before the Public Protector, which was a draft, and she signed it on the 28th of September and it went onto the website on the 8th of the October and you know that is when it was found, and then she signed another on the 8th of October, how did that happen?”
Mabuyane denies involvement
Mabuyane has since maintained that he has never been involved in any acts of fraud or corruption.
The office of the Public Protector, which was at the time headed by suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, found that Mabuyane, together with other high-ranking Eastern Cape officials, had unduly benefited financially from the alleged misuse of public funds.
Mabuyane has since instructed his lawyers to take the report on judicial review as he claims it ignored substantial information in response to the allegations levelled against him.
Mabuyane has also instructed his lawyers to urgently interdict the implementation of the remedial actions.
More details in the report below:
