FILE PHOTO: Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane shakes hands with President Jacob Zuma. PICTURE: @PresidencyZA
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0 CAPE TOWN: Ms Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office was launched by the country’s official opposition party, the DA.
South African lawmakers have now voted in favour of the Committee for Section 194 Enquiry which presented its report before the parliament. The committee was established in 2021 to determine the grounds for the removal of Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane as head of the Public Protector.
After speeches and the much-anticipated voting process by political parties, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula announced that Ms Mkhwebane has been removed from office after a majority of 318 members voted in support of her removal, 43 members voted against her removal, and only one member abstained.
“The question is agreed to, and advocate B. Mkhwebane is accordingly removed from the office of the Public Protector according to the recommendation of this House,” said Ms Mapisa-Nqakula.
However, not all the country’s political parties have supported the move to have Ms Mkhwebane removed. The second biggest opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), followed by the United Democratic Movement (UDM), and the African Transformation Movement (ATM) said the charges against Ms Mkhwebane were frivolous and were designed to protect corrupt accused leader of the ANC and the president of the rainbow nation, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa.
Lawmaker of the EFF, Ms Omphile Maotwe said they reserve their right to take the Section 194 report on judicial review because the process was unfair.
She said the process was littered with many inconsistencies, and Ms Mkhwebane was not even provided with legal representatives from March.
“We reject the report, and we reject the political witchhunt initiated by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and supported by the ANC to punish advocate Mkhwebane in order to protect Mr Ramaphosa,” said Ms Maotwe.
Similar sentiments were shared by the leader of the ATM, Mr Vuyo Zungula who delivered a scathing speech against Mr Ramaphosa and his party.
“If you are in public service and you don’t toe the line of the ruling party, the party will embarrass and chase you out of office,” Mr Zungula said of the process.
“Never has it happened anywhere in the world that a sitting ombudsman is removed, especially after finding against the powerful president and minister. Who is next in this brutality?
“This action is clearly set out to make independent Chapter Nine institutions to work in fear. It is either you rule in favour of the most powerful sections of society or you will be punished,” he further lamented.
UDM leader, Mr Bantu Holomisa said Ms Mkhwebane committed the sin of doing her job too thoroughly.
He added that she had brought to light crucial information on money that flowed into the CR17 campaign for Mr Ramaphosa’s election as leader of the ANC after former and ‘experimental’ DA leader Mr Mmusi Maimane laid a complaint to her office.
Instead, Mr Holomisa suggested, both Mr Maimane and Ms Mkhwebane were sacrificed for pursuing the truth.
The PAC’s Mzwanele Nyhontso said Ms Mkhwebane’s impeachment was a plain case of misogyny.
While Ms Mkhwebane has been removed for investigating Mr Ramaphosa, she has enjoyed a clean audit in the office of the public watchdog for years while fighting for poor people in the country against the elites which Mr Nelson Mandela’s party has been labelled by the public.
The ad hoc committee has nominated Ms Mkhwebane’s deputy, Ms Kholeka Gcaleka, as the new public protector. Ms Gcaleka is already facing one court challenge to her findings. The ATM has filed for legal review of her report absolving Mr Ramaphosa of wrongdoing in the Phala Phala scandal.
She is expected to be voted into that position later this month.
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