Home

Mkhwebane’s office optimistic court will clear her name

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The office of the Public Protector says it is hopeful that pending court processes in relation to Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s competence, will ultimately clear her from any wrongdoing.

This follows a report by an independent review panel, appointed by the Speaker of the National Assembly Thandi Modise stating that prima facie evidence exists to institute removal proceedings against Mkhwebane.

The panel was appointed to establish whether grounds exist for Mkhwebane to possibly be removed on the basis of incompetence or misconduct.

The Public Protector’s spokesperson Oupa Segalwe says, “The report is a pronouncement on the alleged existence of prima facie evidence against the Public Protector and not findings of wrongdoing. It should be noted that there are still court processes in relation to this matter.”

“The Public Protector is confident that both the parliamentary process and the judicial proceedings, which are before the High Court and the Constitutional Court, will ultimately result in her being cleared of any alleged wrongdoing.”

Judge Johann Kriegler, Chairperson of Freedom Under Law comments on the issue:

Mkhwebane’s perjury case

In January, the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court postponed the case of perjury against Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to March 25.

Mkhwebane appeared in court on three charges of perjury relating to a damning Constitutional Court ruling against her which found she may have been biased in her investigation into the Absa-Bancorp matter.

Mkhwebane speaks about the Absa-Bancorp loan:

The Constitutional Court found that Mkhwebane had put forward a number of falsehoods in her 2017 Absa-Bancorp report, in which she found that Absa must repay R1.1 billion to the Reserve Bank for the “lifeboat” lending agreement between the bank and the then Bankorp, which was later taken over by Absa.

Author

MOST READ