Public Protector wastes taxpayers' millions on defending her incompetence

3 May 2022

Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbite by Adv Glynnis Breytenbach MP.

The DA will write to the Solicitor-General, Fhedzisani Pandelani, to determine the exact costs that have been incurred in litigation by the Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, after it has come to light that she has wasted more than R67 million of her office’s budget on legal costs defending her incompetence over the past two years.

A written response to the parliamentary portfolio committee on justice dated 31 May 2022, revealed that the Public Protector has spent R67 122 771 in the 2020 to 2022 financial years to defend reports taken on judicial review and legal costs relating to her impeachment process – R38 878 530 in 2020/21 and R28 244 241 in 2021/22.

Instead of using the Public Protector’s budget as mandated to investigate complaints from the public, it is being wasted on defending Mkhwebane’s incompetence. Had this money not been wasted on these frivolous endeavours, the budget constraint issues within the office of the Public Protector would be greatly alleviated, and important matters may have received the attention they deserve.

It is time the Public Protector stopped wasting public money on defending herself rather than protecting the people of South Africa.

Issued by Glynnis Breytenbach, DA Shadow Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, 3 May 2022