Mkhwebane loses first battle in war to thwart her removal

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has taken yet another legal loss, this time in her application to stop parliament from investigating her for fitness to hold office.

The Western Cape High Court on Friday morning dismissed the first part of Mkhwebane’s bid against parliament’s processes to implement rules that could see her impeached, with costs. This could now pave the way for an inquiry into the Public Protector’s fitness to hold office to proceed.

Judge Vincent Saldanha, on behalf of a full bench, ruled that Mkhwebane had failed to make a case for why the National Assembly should be interdicted from implementing the 17-step process that parliament has developed to deal with the impeachment of Chapter 9 institution heads.

In August this year, Mkhwebane’s lawyer, Advocate Dali Mpofu used the Apartheid era Sobukwe Clause which was used by that regime to keep activist Robert Sobukwe imprisoned past his sentence, in his argument that certain members of parliament had a vendetta or were biased against Mkhwebane.

He compared this clause to Parliamentary rules on the removal of removing office bearers of Chapter 9 institutions, which he said were specifically aimed at Mkhwebane. In handing down his judgement.

Judge Saldanha said Mkhwebane’s claims that the rules were being used to target her were not reasonable.

The application was dismissed and Saldanha ordered Mkhwebane to pay the costs to the first and tenth respondent, National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise and the DA respectively.

Mkhwebane’s application is part of a two-part application against the bid to have her removed. The court found that she could not successfully bring her argument in the first part, until she has successfully challenged the constitutionality of the rules that will govern the proposed removal process.

Mkhwebane had not seen the judgement at the time of going to press, according to her spokesperson Oupa Segalwe.

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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