‘By hook or crook, but mostly crook’ – Mpofu on plans to impeach Mkhwebane

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s lawyer, advocate Dali Mpofu, tore into Parliament on Wednesday for its decision to proceed with its inquiry into her fitness to hold office.

Mpofu made submissions during Mkhwebane’s interdict hearing at the Western Cape High Court.

The Public Protector is seeking to halt Parliament’s impeachment process against her.

The matter was back at the Western Cape High Court after it was postponed on 26 April due to an alleged leak in connection to Mkhwebane’s rescission application.

‘Jumping the gun’

During Wednesday’s proceedings, Mpofu criticised the Ad Hoc Committee on the Section 194 Inquiry for forging ahead with the impeachment process despite knowing that Mkhwebane’s interdict application was yet to be heard.

“The Public Protector is only saying ‘please court all these people are descending upon me, including the [Ismail] Abramjee’s on this world’,” he said.

Last week, the committee resolved to proceed with the impeachment process after Parliament’s legal services informed MPs that there was no legal action preventing them from continuing with their work.

ALSO READ: Abramjee’s leaked SMS meant to influence Mkhwebane’s interdict outcome, Mpofu tells court

According to Parliament’s provisional programme, Mkhwebane will start physically appearing before the inquiry in July, as evidence leaders for the proceedings have since been appointed.

Mpofu questioned whether the process has indeed started given that the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) ruled in February that Mkhwebane was allowed to be legally represented during the impeachment proceedings.

“That judgment said when the process starts you must have full legal representation. The only reason that we have not been invited to the meetings of the committee is because they know the proceedings have not started.

“Otherwise they would have invited us because full legal representation is legal representation, one does not need to be a genius for this,” he said.

Mpofu expanded on his analogy further: “If you say I have legal representation rights in the CCMA, then how can the CCMA proceed and do all sorts of things without me or my lawyer?

“These people are trying to fool this court, because they cannot have it both ways. If they genuinely believed that the process has started then they would have had the lawyers there.”

The advocate further suggested the committee was only trying to get Mkhwebane suspended by proceeding with the impeachment process.

ALSO READ: Parliament to proceed with Mkhwebane’s impeachment process amid SMS scandal

“They are jumping the gun because they want to suspend this person by hook or by crook and mostly by crook,” he said.

Earlier in the court proceedings, Mpofu said Mkhwebane was being “victimised by the most powerful”, adding that the Public Protector was “just a lonesome woman trying to do her job”.

In her interdict application, the Public Protector seeks a court order forcing National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to halt the impeachment process as well as preventing President Cyril Ramaphosa from suspending her.

Abramjee leak

Mpofu also defended the Public Protector’s latest application to reverse the rescission judgment against her.

He told the court that Mkhwebane’s interdict hearing should be suspended “where there is a possibility” that a ruling may be reversed in light of the second rescission application.

Mkhwebane is seeking to reverse the ConCourt’s ruling, delivered earlier this month, after “unfortunate development” of an SMS leak.

In the SMS sent to advocate Andrew Breitenbach, who is the lead senior counsel for Mapisa-Nqakula, legal consultant Ismail Abramjee claimed that he had had it “on good authority” that the ConCourt had decided to dismiss Mkhwebane’s application.

READ MORE: No legitimate inquiry will find me guilty, says confident Mkhwebane

Mkhwebane had approached the ConCourt with a rescission application in February, seeking an order for the apex court to reverse its February ruling.

Abramjee also claimed in the message that the judgment would be delivered on 29 April, but the ruling only came a week later on 6 May.

The judiciary as well as Public Protector’s office are investigating the alleged ConCourt leak.

Mkhwebane has since opened a criminal case against Abramjee.

Timeline: How Mkhwebane’s impeachment will unfold