JUDITH FEBRUARY: It's clear Mkhwebane is unfit for office

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OPINION: It is now abundantly clear that we have a Public Protector who is unfit for office, writes judith_february

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We had an inkling that Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane didn’t have a full grasp of her job but we probably didn’t realise it was that bad until this week’s Constitutional Court judgment in the South African reserve Bank matter was handed down.

It is now abundantly clear that we have a Public Protector who is unfit for office. In terms of Section 194 of the Constitution, a Public Protector can be removed from office on the grounds of misconduct, incapacity or incompetence. There appears to be enough in the ConCourt judgment alone to make out a case for misconduct as well as incompetence. But as usual, the law is not a straight line and her removal may prove tricky.

However, this has not happened - there are no Parliamentary Rules in place for the removal of a Public Protector, only reference to it in Appendix B of the Rules. The Democratic Alliance’s John Steenhuisen lodged a complaint against Mkhwebane as far back at 2017. Since then, Parliament has been rather lukewarm about it. However, the current Speaker Thandi Modise has referred the matter to the justice portfolio committee.

All that aside, even if a Parliamentary committee finds that the Public Protector is incompetent, she can only be removed by a 2/3 majority of the National Assembly, viz, 267 votes. Of course, the African National Congress holds 230 seats in Parliament and the Democratic Alliance 84; so those two parties would comfortably make the 267 mark and then some. It is though abundantly clear that the ANC is divided on the matter.

The question is therefore whether the ANC is able to unite around a common position on the Public Protector or whether it will simply stall the process, seem to move it along yet, in reality, the matter is actually going nowhere slowly. This would not be the first time this happens in Parliament.

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