JUSTICE MALALA | Abused office of the public protector is a crime scene

The office of the public protector belongs to the people of SA. They pay for it through their taxes. Like any other branch of our government, every cent that is spent by the office can and should be examined, several times over, by the public. If you do business with the public protector’s office, or any branch of the state, expect your claim for money from the office to be scrutinised by the public.

That is a non-negotiable principle. Public servants and those who supply government entities with any goods or services should know this and should not have to be reminded of this simple yet fundamental fact.

So, imagine my surprise when, two weeks ago, advocates Dali Mpofu, Muzi Sikhakhane and associates whined and whinged like toddlers who had been denied a sucker because the fees they charge the public protector’s office had been disclosed to the parliamentary inquiry into Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.

Their names were on a list of people who had benefited from R147m spent by Mkhwebane’s office in legal and consulting fees between 2016 and 2021. A document submitted by the inquiry’s evidence leader, Adv Nazreen Bawa, to the inquiry revealed the names of advocates and attorneys who were paid R2m and above for rendering legal services. Mpofu, who earned something like R13m of that R149m, said Bawa had revealed the fees out of “spite and malice”, and that she portrayed black legal professionals as “criminals”.

What? This is like telling your boss she is not allowed to know your salary. Parliament interviewed Mkhwebane for her job years ago. Even with clear evidence then that she was not suited for the office, the Jacob Zuma-led ANC still bulldozed her appointment through, the way it had forced through the destruction of the Scorpions in 2008. At the time, the DA bravely and astutely told everyone with half a brain that this person was not suitable for the job. But the ANC was in zombie mode. What the Zuma ANC wanted the Zuma ANC got, and it wanted Mkhwebane. So they installed her in office.

Parliament interviewed Mkhwebane for her job years ago. Even with clear evidence then that she was not suited for the office, the Jacob Zuma-led ANC still bulldozed her appointment.

We have now heard incontrovertible evidence in the parliamentary inquiry that she received advice and wording of reports from the State Security Agency on various matters including her laughable attempt to change the mandate of the Reserve Bank.

Anyway, now the taxpayer, through her representatives in parliament, wants accountability. No amount of fake victimhood by the likes of Mpofu, Sikhakhane and others is going to derail the people of South Africa from getting that accountability.

Talking about the revelation of the lawyers and consultants’ fees, Sikhakhane told parliament: “We want to state it categorically that we reject Bawa’s intended theory to portray black professionals as corrupt. We reject as unprofessional her conduct to use her position in front of parliament to project that the figures that were put up were simply funnelled to us by Adv Mkhwebane.”

Sikhakhane should tell us what we, the public, must make of a “fugitive from justice”, Paul Ngobeni, being paid by Seanego Attorneys (who were paid by Mkhwebane’s office) for articles that he wrote that bashed the judiciary. Let me say that again in case you didn’t get it. The public protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, used taxpayer’s money to pay a fugitive from justice who is not allowed to practice law in South Africa to attack our own judges. Was Sikhakhane going to tell us about that? Only thorough, open interrogation of the accounts of the public protector’s office has revealed this fact — and many others which have now come to light. Through this process we know Mkhwebane’s office paid Zuma associates Sipho Seepe and Kim Heller at least R120,000 to portray her as the “people’s public protector” on social media.

What is clear here is that, just like the Jacob Zuma presidency, the Mkhwebane’s public protector office is a crime scene. It was used to pay someone to attack our own judges; it was used against the people of South Africa. The police should open a case of fraud — why should public funds (disguised as payment for “legal opinions”) be used to attack judges? Who else in government is doing this, particularly given the rash of attacks on judges, the media and other state-capture opponents this year?

We would not know all this if we did not have an open and transparent ventilation of the accounts of the public protector’s office.

Mpofu, Sikhakhane and their ilk are not doing us a favour. If they do not want their fees displayed and interrogated in parliament, they should not engage in “public sector” work. There are hundreds of talented advocates who can and will do the work. Enough with the whingeing and whining.