Mkhwebane could be playing delay tactics for some time to come

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane will walk the same path as former president Jacob Zuma, by taking her battle to avoid impeachment all the way to the high court, analysts have said.

The beleaguered advocate suffered a devastating loss in her two-pronged application to halt a process in parliament to review her fitness to hold office.

In dismissing her application to interdict parliament from proceeding, Judge Vincent Saldanha was stern in his assessment of her claims of bias by parliament, calling them unsubstantiated.

He also dismissed her application based on his reservations on the courts infringing on the role and duties of parliament and on the gravity of the charges against her, laid out in the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) main complaint to parliament and which were based on findings by the Constitutional Court (ConCourt).

Political analyst Professor Mcebisi Ndletyana said Mkhwebane was doing what many facing impeachment had done in the past – everything she could to delay or block the process.

“The constitution does provide for the removal of a Chapter 9 head who is unfit, so what is disappointing is the kind of case she is raising, which is somewhat revealing of her character,” he said.

From the onset of her term, guns were blazing with demands for every television in the building to be changed to the now-defunct ANN7 and her rhetoric was replete with political, rather than legal or constitutional, points.

These were the early signs of a public protector who was less sophisticated than the international standards of office bearers of her calibre, Ndletyana said.

She may take her case to ConCourt, but it remained to be seen whether the second part of her application had a leg to stand on, given Saldanha’s comments.

“I guess anything is possible, but with her, I can’t quite think so, unless she raises something different.

“There are no grounds to challenge parliament’s right to embark on an impeachment process and there is also the issue of her competence, as  shown by a series of judgments in which she has been roundly denounced and lambasted by different courts,” he said.

“These were not just dismissals of her findings, these were not simply a matter of interpreting the law differently, but went right into the law and her fundamental misunderstanding thereof.”

Meanwhile, she has supporters – factions of the ANC and smaller political parties, such as the African Transformation Movement (ATM).

ATM spokesperson Zama Ntshona said: “The ATM supported the cause because we truly believed that it was necessary to protect Chapter 9 institutions from possible bullying by parliamentarians when they feel threatened by their actions.

“She may very well take this to the highest court in the land.”

Rogue activist Melisizwe Mandela has also been vocal in extreme left spaces about his support for Mkhwebane, who he believes, against all odds, was the best public protector the country has had.

Parliament has a right to institute these impeachment proceedings, he said, but not the DA, because of a conflict of interest stemming from Mkhwebane having made adverse findings in her investigation into the party.

Speaker of parliament Thandi Modise also had no standing, he said, because she was currently being investigated by Mkhwebane.

– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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