EFF calls on Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to step down

11 July 2017

The EFF calls on Adv. Busisiwe Mkhwebane to step down from the position of Public Protector. In her recent responding affidavit to the court challenge mainly by the South African Reserve Bank, the PP concedes that she was wrong on her remedial action regarding a constitutional amendment. The PP even offers to pay for legal costs of opposing counsels. 

We call on her to do the honorable thing and step down. This is not only for an illegitimate and dangerous remedial action, but also for the audacity of offering to use public funds to pay for her incompetent decisions. If she really is genuine in her realization of how flawed her remedial action is, why did she wait for others to initiate a court action? More fundamentally, she should be protecting public funds, not using them wastefully. Thus, if she is genuine, she should be offering to pay these legal costs personally. 

Adv. Busisiwe Mkhwebane should know that the remedial actions of the Public Protector are binding. Had no one challenged her dangerous remedial action regarding constitutional amendment, she would have basically coerced the whole country into a wrong direction. 

The first and basic requirement for holding this office is an understanding that one's duty is to protect the constitution. If a person can occupy this office, instead of protecting the constitution, undermines it, is evidence enough that she is not fit and proper to be in it. In essence, Adv. Mkhwebane is not different to Baleka Mbete, Jacob Zuma and Berning Ntlemeza who each day held the progress of justice and accountability in ransom by taking  unconstitutional decisions against all advice. It also means in the name of this important office, she has now immersed the culture of constitutional defiance that characterizes the conduct of many in the ANC state institutions in the office of the PP.

The integrity of the office of the Public Protector ought to always be upheld by strict constitutional adherence. In an environment of general constitutional delinquency, the last thing we need is a legal sophomore and chance-taker in the person of Mkhwebane in this office. Therefore, we call on her to do the honorable thing  and step down from office, at least, in the interest of integrity of the Office of the Public Protector.

Issued by Mbuyiseni Quintin Ndlozi, National Spokesperson, EFF, 11 July 2017