We must watch Mkhwebane very closely

Confidence and its evil twin, shamelessness, tend to march in lock-step in public life.

It's why President Jacob Zuma, cabinet ministers Faith Muthambi, Bathabile Dlamini and Mosebenzi Zwane, and a host of others including Schabir Shaik, Grace Mugabe and Hlaudi Motsoeneng are incapable of displaying even a fragment of embarrassment when caught out.

The reaction of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to Tuesday's damning judgment in the High Court in Pretoria - Judge John Murphy pulled no punches in setting aside her directive that the constitution should be amended to alter the Reserve Bank's mandate - will therefore be revealing.

Murphy let fly with an impressive barrage of adjectives in dealing with Mkhwebane's remedial action in her June report on the lifeboat to Bankorp/Absa in the 1990s. They included illegal, irrational, unconstitutional, disingenuous, peremptory and dismissive.

And he said: "It is disconcerting that [Mkhwebane] seems impervious to the criticism, or otherwise disinclined to address it. She risks the charge of hypocrisy and incompetence if she does not hold herself to an equal or higher standard than that to which she holds those subject to her writ. She would do well to reflect more deeply on her conduct of this investigation and the criticism of her by the Governor of the Reserve Bank and the Speaker of Parliament."

The last time a senior public office-bearer was dispatched so firmly to the naughty corner was when Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said Zuma had acted unconstitutionally and broken his oath of office. No 1 was characteristically unabashed.

After initial resistance to legal moves challenging the remedial action, Mkhwebane wisely rolled over. Her next move will be carefully scrutinised by those who fear she belongs to the ranks of the captured.