The testimony heard thus far during parliament’s section 194 inquiry into suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office is deeply concerning for democracy in SA.
While we have yet to hear all the evidence, revelations by a former senior investigator in her office that the State Security Agency (SSA) drafted part of a public protector investigation report are cause for alarm.
Tebogo Kekana, who was fired last year and is seeking reinstatement via the labour court, made a protected disclosure in 2019 about a meeting with Mkhwebane and “representatives from the SSA”. One of them, introduced as an economist, produced a draft of proposed recommendations to be inserted into Mkhwebane’s final 2017 “CIEX report” into the apartheid-era bailout of Bancorp bank.
Kekana told the inquiry: “Accordingly, the remedial action contained in the CIEX investigation report did not come from the office of the public protector, but rather from the SSA.”
That report, later set aside by the courts as unconstitutional, contained a directive that parliament should amend the mandate of the Reserve Bank.
We exist to protect your right to proper conduct in state affairs. We exercise our powers and functions with impartiality and without fear, favour or prejudice.
— Busisiwe Mkhwebane, championing the independence of the public protector’s office in 2016
Mkhwebane’s legal representative advocate Dali Mpofu has argued that Kekana was a dishonest, unreliable and vindictive witness motivated by retaliation after his dismissal.
But a chapter nine institution — established in terms of the constitution to guard democracy in SA — allowing security operatives with their own agenda to so brazenly influence the final report into the Bancorp saga, makes a mockery of the independence of the office of the public protector.
Mkhwebane, not long after taking on her role in 2016, championed the independence of her office at a function in Cape Town. “We exist to protect your right to proper conduct in state affairs,” she told guests. “We exercise our powers and functions with impartiality and without fear, favour or prejudice.”
Five and a half years later those words ring hollow, based on the evidence presented so far before the inquiry.
Former Sars executive Johann van Loggerenberg also dealt a blow to the public protector’s office, telling the inquiry he had provided it with reams of evidence in 2016 about state capture which was later ignored by Mkhwebane in her Sars “rogue unit” report released in 2019.
Again, this raises a red flag for the state of our democracy and those entrusted with upholding the values in our constitution.
Let it serve as a warning, we all need to guard against meddling and manipulation within our chapter nine institutions. Without their checks and balances, our democracy is under threat.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.