The National Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to remove Adv Busisiwe Mkhwebane as Public Protector. 318 members voted for the motion while 43 voted against and only COPE President, Mosiuoa Lekota abstained.
Members voted one by one by responding YES or NO when their names were called. This followed a report of the Section 194 committee which recommended her removal following a year long impeachment process.
Mkhwebane’s impeachment by Parliament means no pension upon departure. In addition to her pension, Mkhwebane is entitled to a gratuity worth several million. When her predecessor, Thuli Madonsela, left office in 2016, her gratuity was in the region of R7,5 million.
This is based on the report of the Section 194 committee that upheld the charges of misconduct and incompetence against her.
Mkhwebane was suspended last year, pending the Section 194 inquiry.
The National Assembly had to develop its own rules for the process, seeing that the Constitution does not specify how the removal should be dealt with.
The Executive Secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, Lawson Naidoo says this removal by Parliament is an important step in the maturing of the democracy.
“It’s about parliament playing its proper constitutional role. It is mandated to deal with these very serious matters and you know it needs to be able to do that. And as I have said I hope in future it will be able to do so more efficiently and not a dragged out process we have seen now… but it is about parliament exercising its authority. It’s about holding people to account to their constitutional mandates. So I think it’s an important step forward.”
