Public protector taken to court over PRASA corruption report
5 November 2019
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s report into the Passenger Rail Association of SA (PRASA) has been taken on review in the Gauteng High Court. Activist group #UniteBehind accused her last week of writing a negligent report.
Mkhwebane’s April 2019 report detailed the ongoing state capture investigations into the Passenger Rail Association of South Africa (PRASA), but did not cite new evidence or address the outlying concerns laid out in the previous report from 2015.
The 2015 report was authored by Mkhwebane’s predecessor Thuli Madonsela, who deferred several issues surrounding PRASA corruption to a later report. #UniteBehind told the court in an October affidavit that Mkhwebane had “failed to address the deferred complaints properly and effectively and, in the main, at all.”
The office of the Public Protector notified the court of Mkhwebane’s intention to oppose the review on 1 November, after which she was given 15 days to file her response. #UniteBehind insists that she should file a record of how her investigation was conducted to dispel any accusations of misconduct.