Inquiry barking up wrong tree by looking into Mkhwebane’s legal fees, says Dali Mpofu

Advocate Dali Mpofu told the Section 194 inquiry it was “barking up the wrong tree” by looking into the legal fees of suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s lawyers, calling them irrelevant.

Mpofu also accused the inquiry and witnesses of “disgraceful conduct” for publicising the legal fees.

The inquiry into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office continued on Friday, with the cross-examination of senior manager, Neels van der Merwe.

Van der Merwe continued his cross-examination and faced accusations of having “malicious intent” when he presented evidence about legal fees.

Mpofu told the inquiry that the charges in the motion specifically talk about legal costs and not legal fees for specific lawyers.

“Both you and the evidence leaders are quite frankly barking up the wrong tree because the Natasha Mazzone motion is very clear that it deals with the question of wasteful and unauthorized expenditure in relation to legal costs, it does not refer to legal fees, which is a different thing,” Mpofu said.

Van der Merwe told Mpofu that he was not in a position to apologize and was merely doing what he was asked by the committee.

“Because an apology has implications. It could mean that I think that the evidence is irrelevant or that it is untrue,” he said.

The inquiry also corrected the legal fees presented last week, which were incorrectly attributed to Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane.

-EWN

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