Constitutional Court confirms that Public Protector (PP) is indeed incompetent 

22 July 2019

The ruling of the Constitutional Court this morning against the Public Protector (PP), adv Tsisiwe Mkhwebane, that she, among other things, violated her mandate is damning and essentially confirms that she is not competent to fill the office of South Africa's PP.

This morning, the Constitutional Court found that there were a great number of untruths in the PP's case and that her report was not based on sound economic advice. She also neglected to declare why she did not meet with the President and the state security agency when her investigation was ongoing.

The case followed on a report issued by Mkhwebane in June 2017 in which she directed that Absa must pay back an amount of R1,125 billion to the Reserve Bank. According to the PP, the money was a "life buoy" that the Reserve Bank unlawfully paid out to Bankorp during the Apartheid era.

The Court found that the PP exceeded the bounds of her mandate, that she was dishonest and that she did not meet with the relevant parties mentioned in the report.

This raises a lot of questions regarding her recent findings concerning President Cyril Ramaphosa and only adds to the impression that the is not impartial and objective, as she ought to be.

The FF Plus once again requests that the investigation by the parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Justice into Mkhwebane's competence must be sped up, particularly in the light of today's ruling by the Constitutional Court.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 22 July 2019