Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has put her fate in God’s hands after parliament set in motion a process to remove her from office.
She was speaking in East London during her Eastern Cape Stakeholders Roadshow, where she met Eastern Cape government executive led by the premier Oscar Mabuyane, provincial speaker Helen Sauls-August, deputy speaker Mlibo Qoboshiyana, and a group of traditional leaders.
Parliament has since informed President Cyril Ramaphosa of its intention to remove Mkhwebane from office, who in turn gave the public protector 10 days to explain why she should not be suspended.
Mkhwebane confirmed receiving correspondence from Ramaphosa requesting her to give reasons why he should not exercise his powers in terms of section 194(3)(a) of the constitution to suspend her.
She said she is in consultation with her legal team on the way forward.
But on whether this spells the end of her term in office, she said: “It’s up to God, I said that several times. I think I’ll finish my term, but if God says now, they can use this unlawful process to remove me, so be it.
“Being a believer God allowed me to be in this position. If it’s God’s way for me to depart from this position, that would be the case.”
Mkhwebane said she finds it strange that the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has written to Ramaphosa without informing her.
She said the public protector as an institution and its staff will carry on with its work even if she were to be removed from office. She, however, expressed concern that much efforts have been placed on removing her from the office instead of addressing issues that the office of the public protector was dealing with.
She said: “What South Africans should know is that focusing on removing this person wouldn’t change poverty, wouldn’t change lack of access to water, lack of access to resources.
“If they are able to deal with institutions like this, what does it mean for a person on the street, it’s very much worrisome.”
Also read: Ramaphosa gives Mkhwebane 10 days to save herself from suspension
Mkhwebane suffers another legal blow
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