Advocate Dali Mpofu has accused former senior investigator at public protector’s office Tebogo Kekana of retaliating against advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane for his removal from office.
This after Kekana, who is the first witness in the parliament’s Section 194 impeachment inquiry into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office, gave evidence that Mkhwebane took the advice of the State Security Agency (SSA) in 2017 when she went against the constitution to instruct that the SA Reserve Bank’s (SARB) mandate be changed.
According to Mpofu, Kekana is retaliating against Mkhwebane because he was fired for “dishonesty”. He said the former investigator gave false evidence on Monday when he said Mkhwebane’s directive to amend the constitutional mandate of the SARB came from the SSA.
Mpofu also accused Kekana of gossiping about Mkhwebane, stating that he is the “opposite of a whistleblower”.
On Monday, Kekana uncovered the compilation of information and the drafting of Mkhwebane’s CIE/Bankorp/SARB report claiming that he was instructed to add findings that the SARB should be nationalised.
Kekana, who was employed in Mkhwebane’s office as an investigator responsible for taking notes and recording meetings, told the committee that Mkhwebane asked him to attend a meeting between her and the SSA.
According to Kekana, the meeting took place on May 3 2017 after the provisional report had been finalised. He said he attended with Mkhwebane, the representatives of the SSA, James Ramabulane and former spy boss Arthur Fraser, to obtain submissions from the SSA on the investigation.
Kekana added that the [then] minister of state security, David Mahlobo, also attended the meeting. Kekana testified that Mkhwebane privately engaged with Fraser prior to the meeting, noting that he was also not part of the discussion.
He further told the committee that he found it “odd” that Mkhwebane would hold a meeting by herself with one of the attendees of an interview, without anyone else present.
Said Kekana: “The formal meeting then began. When the meeting with the SSA began, I took out my notepad in order to take notes of the meeting and took out my recording device in order to record the meeting, as I usually do.
“Adv Mkhwebane, however, instructed me not to record the meeting. She also instructed me not to take notes during the meeting. I was extremely surprised by both these instructions.”
Kekana further testified that he was informed that the report should include a recommendation that the constitution must be amended to allow for the SARB to be nationalised. However, the recommendation was not made in the meetings he attended in relation to the report.
Kekana added that in 2017, he was called to a meeting with a senior human resources manager who warned him that Mkhwebane did not want him to work in her office anymore because he “spoke too much to lawyers”.
In a letter dated July 29 2019, Kekana was served a notice of intention to place him on precautionary suspension.
He said: “After my laptop was returned to me after being seized, I noticed that all the e-mails stored in my archive folder from the e-mail addresses from 2017 had disappeared.”
Kekana, who was fired from his position, is currently disputing his dismissal in the labour court.
This is a developing story…
Also read: Mkhwebane’s suspension was premature – Dali Mpofu
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