Committee for Section 194 Enquiry will not be derailed and its work dragged out

14 July 2022

The Committee for Section 194 Enquiry today agreed that it will not be derailed or delayed unnecessarily during its enquiry in Public Protector Adv Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.

The committee further agreed that it works within the rules of the National Assembly and will by all means attempt to fulfill the mandate given to it, within the timeframe set out in its terms of reference.

This follows an address in the morning from Adv Dali Mpofu (SC) on behalf of Adv Mkhwebane in which he stated that, given the wide scope of the enquiry, he does not believe the committee will be able to finish its work by September 2022, as intended. “If this process is going to be fair and cover the ground, it will not finish in September. There is vast ground to cover.” Some court cases took up to four years to finalise, he pointed out.

Some committee members considered this a possible delaying tactic in order to drag the process out until the end of Adv Mkhwebane’s term of office. Adv Mpofu took offence to this suggestion, saying it was false and without any evidence. He further indicated that he will contend that efforts were made to contact Mr Johann van Loggerenberg, a witness and former South African Revenue Service (SARS) employee, during the investigation into the so-called intelligence unit in SARS, but Adv Mkhwebane was informed he was not traceable.

Mr van Loggerenberg has been on the stand since yesterday and denied he had ever shared taxpayer information with anyone. In addition, he said the work done by the units he managed at SARS could not be described as intelligence. However, the units did work with law enforcement and intelligence bodies. 
Committee Chairperson Mr Qubudile Dyantyi indicated that Mr van Loggerenberg will continue being cross-examined tomorrow and it is expected that a new witness, Mr Ivan Pillay, will take the stand in the afternoon.

The committee is expected to finalise its work by the end of September 2022. The enquiry is hybrid and can be followed live on Parliament’s media platforms.

Issued by Rajaa Azzakani, Media Officer, Parliament, 15 July 2022