The stakes were raised this week at suspended public protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s impeachment hearing after an insider’s evidence cast her integrity in a bad light.
Tebogo Kekana, who was a senior investigator in the PP’s office, detailed how Mkhwebane instructed them to omit some information when preparing the findings of the Free State-based Vrede Farm (Estina dairy farm) corruption probe.
“We were instructed to remove some information relating to the inflation of goods’ prices. We were also ordered not to make any findings that will implicate some politicians. We were forced to remove any information or adverse findings contained in the report against politicians, including former Free State premier Ace Magashule and Mosebenzi Zwane, the then Free State MEC for agriculture.”
The Estina dairy farm project was a Free State government initiative meant to help emerging farmers, but almost none of the R220-million allocated went to beneficiaries, while the money was siphoned off to companies connected to the Gupta family.
Mkhwebane’s 2018 findings were largely seen as a whitewash for failing to investigate the roles of Magashule and Zwane in establishing the project. The DA took the report on review, which culminated in a scathing ruling by Judge Ronel Tolmay. The judge found in 2019 that the PP’s failures in the Estina matter were far worse and lamentable than that set out in the South African Reserve Bank matter.
Judge Tolmay said that at least in the Reserve Bank matter, the institutions had the resources to fend for themselves while the Estina dairy project report impacted on the rights of the poor and vulnerable.
“In this instance, her dereliction of her duty impacted on the rights of the poor and vulnerable in society, the very people for whom her office was essentially created,” Tolmay wrote.
The Reserve Bank matter refers to a report released by Mkhwebane in which she asked for a constitutional amendment of the Reserve Bank’s role in the economy – finding that the central bank is geared to serving “only the benefits of a few”.
Kekana told the impeachment hearing that Mkhwebane took the advice of State Security Agency (SSA) officials in 2017, and unconstitutionally instructed parliament to amend the mandate of the Reserve Bank to make it eligible to be nationalised.
Kekana said Mkhwebane requested a meeting with the SSA and asked him to attend. This meeting is said to have occurred after the provisional report had been finalised. He testified that SSA officials James Ramabulane and Arthur Fraser attended the meeting.
David Mahlobo, the minister of state security at the time, also attended the meeting.
“On the day of the meeting, I was informed that advocate Mkhwebane was having a discussion with minister Mahlobo prior to the meeting. I found it odd that advocate Mkhwebane would hold a discussion by herself with one of the attendees of an interview, without anyone else present.”
Kekana testified that Mkhwebane instructed that no notes be taken of the meeting, nor were the discussions to be recorded, which was against standard procedure.
He said when he was drafting the final report, Mkhwebane told him that he must “find a way to include a recommendation in the final report in terms of which the constitution would have to be amended to cater for the nationalisation of the South African Reserve Bank.”
Mkhwebane’s legal counsel advocate Dali Mpofu said his client sought the SSA’s input on the bank’s mandate to avoid “economic instability”. Mpofu also argued that Mkhwebane did not instruct Kekana and other officials to manipulate the findings of investigations.
“No-one instructed you to add or remove things when preparing the findings of the investigations. As a senior investigator, you knew exactly what you were doing. The information that you are giving this committee is not true simply because you are telling lies.”
He also accused Kekana of being bitter after being fired by Mkhwebane for alleged dishonesty.
Mpofu said his client was going to deny all allegations made by Kekana because they were baseless.
The impeachment hearing resumes on Tuesday.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
