Mkhwebane wastes taxpayers’ money once again

20 November 2017

The DA condemns Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s, late withdrawal of her application to postpone proceedings in the court case in which her report on the ABSA/CIEX bail-out is being challenged.

She did offer to pay punitive costs but this is easy to do when you are spending other people’s money and therefore, she has yet again wasted public resources.

The fact is that she should not have launched such an application, which was clearly frivolous.

This is not the first time Mkhwebane has wasted taxpayers’ money in this fashion. Since her appointment, she’s wastefully incurred legal costs including:

- In July 2017, when she withdrew her opposition to an urgent application to set aside her remedial action amending the Constitution; and

- In February 2017, when she opposed President Jacob Zuma’s review application “merely to comply with the court rules” while still seeking a legal opinion – she only decided to commit to opposing the application in June.

It seems Mkhwebane has taken a leaf from Zuma’s book in launching court applications and withdrawing them later and sees nothing wrong with this.

Mkhwebane holds a critical position and the legal games she has been playing since her appointment are unacceptable. By all accounts, she is falling very short of fulfilling her mandate as Public Protector. The DA has long held that she is not suitable for the post and she continues to illustrate this, this time by wasting taxpayers’ money.

Issued by Glynnis Breytenbach, Shadow Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, 20 November 2017