Phala Phala: Parliament must vigorously interrogate Public Protector report
13 March 2023
ActionSA is concerned that Acting Public Protector, Adv Kholeka Gcaleka’s preliminary report into the Phala Phala burglary is fatally flawed on account that it clears President Ramaphosa of wrongdoing. While we appreciate that this is a preliminary report and that a final report might come to different conclusions, we are concerned that Adv Gcaleka seems to have omitted information readily available in the public domain.
As such Parliament must interrogate this preliminary report and its final iteration pursuant to section 181(5) of the Constitution and satisfy itself that the Office of the Public Protector is not being compromised further for nefarious political ends.
South Africa, has for more than six years, been saddled with a politically expedient and compromised Public Protector in Busisiwe Mkhwebane and we can ill-afford for the Acting Public Protector to further erode the public’s confidence in such a critical chapter 9 institution established to protect the South African people against abuses of power by the state.
Gcaleka’s finding that no basis to conclude that Ramaphosa contravened the Executive Ethics Code is objectionable and strikingly without merit as there is clear evidence, in the public record, that President Ramaphosa was both aware of the burglary and that his security detail attempted to conceal it. To suggest otherwise would be a flagrant undermining of the intelligence of the South African people and tantamount to a whitewashing of serious misconduct on the part of the President.