President Cyril Ramaphosa has given public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane 10 days to explain why she should not be suspended.
This, according to the Presidency in a series of tweets, comes after the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, resolved to continue pursuing an inquiry into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
Last month, Mkhwebane lost her bid in the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) to block the investigation when the apex court sided with Mapisa-Nqakula and the DA.
The ConCourt allowed the appointment of a judge to the independent panel set to probe Mkhwebane’s ability to hold office and ruled that it is lawful for her to have a legal representative.
She also suffered another blow when the ConCourt dismissed a rescission application she launched, thereafter, to have the country’s highest court overturn its decision that she had changed the wording of Executive Code of Ethics in her findings against Ramaphosa in connection with the so-called CR17 funding.
Mkhwebane’s application arose from the ConCourt’s upholding the decision of a high court instruction that set aside Mkhwebane’s report into the CR17 funding, which concluded that Ramaphosa had lied in parliament when explaining the donation.
She had appealed to the country’s highest court to overturn the setting aside of the report by the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. But the ConCourt affirmed the invalidity of the report and found that she had erred in law.
“For a member of the executive to breach the [Executive Ethics] Code, she or he must have given incorrect information with the intention to mislead the legislature. Incorrect information alone is not sufficient to constitute a violation of the code,” the judges found.
They said Mkhwebane had “seriously misconstrued the code”.
“Section 194(3)(a) of the constitution states that the president may ‘suspend a [public protector, auditor-general or a member of a commission established in terms of Chapter 9 of the constitution] from office at any time after the start of the proceedings of the National Assembly for the removal of that person,” the Presidency said.
Considering the resolution of the committee in a letter to the public protector on March 17, Ramaphosa said: “It would therefore now be appropriate to consider whether or not you ought to be suspended pending finalisation of the committee’s work.
“I therefore hereby ask you to provide me with reasons why I should not exercise my powers in terms of section 194(3)(a) of the constitution, in writing, within 10 working days of the date of this letter.”
Also read: Mkhwebane suffers another legal blow
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