Parliamentary inquiry into Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office resumes
The inquiry into the Public Protector’s fitness to hold office was expected to resume on Monday.
After months of witness testimony last year, it’s now the turn of suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to call her witnesses.
Parliament’s section 194 committee is probing her fitness to hold office, with only nine months to go before her seven-year tenure ends.
Last week the committee considered applications from Mkhwebane to have five witnesses summoned to appear before the inquiry.
Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has agreed to issue subpoenas for two witnesses at the request of the section 194 committee. Those witnesses are former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and an investigator in the public protector’s office, Bianca Mvuyana.
But the committee said it didn’t see the relevance of calling deputy public protector Kholeka Gcaleka, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan or DA MP Natasha Mazzone to testify.
Mkhwebane’s first witness on Monday was expected to be her Zambian counterpart, Caroline Zulu-Sokoni.
Committee chairperson Richard Dyantyi said the committee will not tolerate an endless witness list.
“We have all the intentions to stick to our agreed programme, which says we will be doing a lot of witness interactions in February. By March, we will be speaking of a draft report writing,” said Dyantyi.
Mkhwebane still has another legal challenge pending against Parliament after Dyantyi and DA MP Kevin Mileham refused to recuse themselves over claims of bias.
ZAMBIA’S PUBLIC PROTECTOR TESTIMONY
Meanwhile, Mkhwebane’s Zambian counterpart Caroline Zulu-Sokoni is testifying in her defence.
She had been detailing the historical context of ombudsmanship and the need to protect public protectors from doing their work without fear of retribution.
She was also questioned by advocate Dali Mpofu, who represents Mkhwebane in this inquiry, about the circumstances under which a public protector can be removed from office.
Zulu-Sokoni said public protectors were in the difficult position of investigating the very structure that had established it.
She testified that Parliament should only scrutinize a public protector where there was gross misconduct.
Zulu-Sokoni said she did not believe court judgments should be used against a public protector.
“There’s no reason why, when the courts do their job, they’ve said ombudsman here you were wrong, or ombudsman here you were right. They’ve done their job, the system has cleansed itself. I don’t see the reason why it should be taken up by another arm of government again”.
Zulu-Sokoni said a public protector who understood their job would incorporate the judgment into the work of the office.
-EWN
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