Mapisa-Nqakula warns: If the Mkhwebane inquiry isn't wrapped up in May, it may have to be abandoned

National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula says the parliament inquiry into public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office has to conclude its work by the end of this month or it may have to let her go due to escalating legal fees.

Mapisa-Nqakula suggested the process would need to be abandoned as the taxpayer cannot fund another month of Mkhwebane's legal fees. The legal costs “have gone way beyond what was anticipated” and it was difficult to get more money, she said.

Mapisa-Nqakula raised the matter in the meeting of the National Assembly’s programme committee on Thursday after parliament staff indicated the inquiry was now scheduled to conclude its work on June 26.

The speaker said she was surprised to hear the deadline has been extended to June as there had been an agreement to finish the work by the end of May.

“I’m raising this not out of being insensitive to the work that’s being done by the committee, but it’s because of the difficulties we have been having of finding money for the continuation of the work of that committee, the difficulties of paying legal costs.”

She said she had been part of appeals to ministers and to President Cyril Ramaphosa over the past month to make more funding available so that the process could be concluded.

Mapisa-Nqakula said the R4m that has been made available by the office of the public protector is meant to cover the month of May and “come end of May, we will not be able to push any further for anyone to make money available for the legal costs”.

In the process of raising funds, there was a suggestion that parliament itself should fund the rest of the hearings. “And I said but we are conducting oversight. Indeed we are responsible for the inquiry but the money can’t come from parliament for that,” said Mapisa-Nqakula.

The speaker said the other reason she was raising the matter was the possibility of another Section 194 inquiry involving the commission on gender equality (CGE) and how that process would be funded. She was concerned that that process cannot start until there is clarity on who will fund the 194 committee dealing with the CGE issue.

“I can foresee a situation where there is going to be another struggle between the executive of parliament and the offices concerned to get money to fund that, and we can’t afford it.”

She said parliament has to discuss whether it was necessary to have such inquiries and expenditure on legal costs if the term of office for the affected person is nearing its end.

“Whether you want to continue to have these kinds of hearings and spend the kind of money which we have spent on the legal costs of the public protector, or you want to say to the person, ‘look, let’s negotiate your package and you leave’.”

“So, honestly from the side of National Assembly Programme Committee, we cannot go into June with this process.

“As a person who has been battling to get this money for that process, I am not prepared to get into that kind of exercise anymore. I tried my best, and I am not doing it again.

“It is either people continue, and it ends end of May, or the process collapses, and, in that case, it means the public protector walking away without a conclusion of the case,” said Mapisa-Nqakula.

MPs in the meeting agreed that the process was dragging for a long time and that the legal costs were exorbitant, but they objected to abandoning it without an outcome.

Her deputy, Lechesa Tsenoli said while he was against the extension of deadline, the principles that are up for adjudication by the inquiry were so crucial, they cannot be allowed to disappear because the process was not completed.

The DA’s Annelie Lotriet also agreed that the inquiry cannot be allowed to collapse, as it would result in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

“ I do propose that parliament must decide this is it, we finish the process and come to a conclusion,” she said.

FF Plus Corne Mulder said Mkhwebane should be advised to appeal to the Legal Aid for funding.

He said when the court said her fees should be paid for, it probably meant the costs should be reasonable but now they have gone beyond reasonable, and the court cannot fault parliament for its role in assisting the process.

He too agreed that the committee needed to stick to the initial deadline, but warning that allowing the case to fall and letting Mkhwebane walk away was not an option.

The inquiry adjourned this week to allow Mkhwebane to find legal representation following the public protector office availing R4m for her legal funding.

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