Mkhwebane’s mammoth task over probe into Ramaphosa’s statement

With eight days left for President Cyril Ramaphosa to respond to the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) request to explain his “fall on his sword” comments over public funds being used for ANC campaigns, Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane and the president are set to bump heads again.

With the Zondo report due in days, the news that Mkhwebane is investigating Ramaphosa for a possible breach of the executive ethics code would not have been welcomed. But political analyst Levy Ndou, from Tshwane University
of Technology, said Mkhwebane was faced with a difficult task in probing the matter.

Firstly was the context of Ramaphosa’s statement where he allegedly acknowledged that state funds were used for party purposes. The leaked audio of Ramaphosa saying he would rather divert attention to himself over people
finding out about ANC corruption, formed the basis of suspended ANC MP Mervyn Dirks’ complaint to the public protector and Scopa.

Dirks launched two-way complaints against the president – asking Mkhwebane to probe Ramaphosa’s alleged contravention of the ethics code and for Scopa to investigate his alleged failure to report alleged abuse of state funds by the ANC despite knowing about it.

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Ndou said the context of Ramaphosa’s statement would be important to determine the success of Mkhwebane’s probe. The public protector should be careful in her determination. Secondly, she had to avoid being dragged into the ANC factional battles but rather be seen to be doing her job objectively in the best public interest, based on facts.

“You don’t have to be student of politics to see that this matter is an ANC factional issue. But the public protector cannot come out and say that, although she is aware of it,” Ndou said.

“She must have all the facts and understand the context of the discussion that happened in the ANC meeting where the tape was recorded.

“It’s a tape, you don’t know where it started and exactly what was its content. It happened in a meeting of a political party, which may be questionable in terms of the public protector’s jurisdiction,” Ndou said.

Another analyst, Prof Mcebisi Ndletyana, said the conversation about ANC funding was likely not properly contextualised and therefore Ramaphosa could easily explain it away. The issues that emerged in the conversation were already in the public domain and some ventilated via the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

“All her reports are always seen with suspicion and doubt,” Ndletyana said.

It’s not the first time Mkhwebane and Ramaphosa have bumped heads. Mkhwebane lost an appeal in the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) pertaining to the CR17 campaign funding by Bosasa in July last year. The ConCourt ruled that she changed the wording of the ethics code to suit her conclusion that Ramaphosa had inadvertently or
deliberately misled the legislature on matter.

ALSO READ: Scopa to give Ramaphosa 10 days to explain leaked audio

The ruling aligned with the High Court in Pretoria decision to set aside her report, which found Ramaphosa to have misled parliament about the CR17 campaign funding. Mkhwebane’s office confirmed it received a complaint on Wednesday and an investigator would be allocated to the matter.

Her spokesperson, Oupa Segalwe, said Mkhwebane was compelled to investigate the matter because the public protector is the only body empowered by law to probe and enforce the executive ethics code in the country. Segalwe said Ramaphosa was not being personally targeted but the public protector was duty-bound to probe the matter like she would do when a complaint was lodged against any member of the executive council or a deputy minister.

He said the investigation would begin as soon as possible but it must be completed within 30 days and, in terms of the rule, the public protector cannot refer the investigation to another body but must do it herself.

Scopa chair Mkhuleko Hlengwa earlier said his committee would invite Ramaphosa to appear before it and the president had indicated he would oblige.

– ericn@citizen.co.za