MEDIA STATEMENT
Democratic Alliance in contravention of Section 7(2) of the Public Protector Act, 1994 (Act No. 23 of 1994) and the Public Protector is considering instituting criminal proceedings against Mike Waters MP - Deputy Chief Whip of the Democratic Alliance.
On 1st September 2017, the Public Protector issued a provisional closing report on an investigation into allegations of a violation of the Executive Ethics Code by the Minister of State Security, Mr. David Mahlobo, MP, who is alleged to have deliberately misled Parliament when he said the "Fees Must Fall' activist, Mr. Mcebo Dlamini has never been to his house.
The Public Protector conducted an investigation into the above-mentioned allegations and based on the evidence at her disposal, she concluded that it cannot be found that Minister David Mahlobo willfully misled Parliament, unless the Democratic Alliance provide the Public Protector with any information contradicting the contents of provisional closing report on or before Monday, 1l September 2017.
In the aforesaid provisional report, the Public Protector indicated that if she does not receive any contradictory information by the return date, the matter will be considered as finalized.
Instead of DA responding to the Public Protector's provisional closing report, Mr Mike Waters, published the aforesaid provisional report and issued a media statement titled "Public Protector gives David Mahlobo a pass for lying to Parliament". The publication of this provisional report was prohibited in terms of section 7(2) of the Public Protector Act.