Mkhwebane hearing: former aide to testify before committee

Parliament’s inquiry into public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office resumes on Wednesday with two witnesses from her office due to testify before the National Assembly committee established to review her conduct.

Advocates Livhuwani Tshiwalule and Nditsheni Raedani are expected before the committee, which was established in April 2021. The process was initially hamstrung by events including Mkhwebane’s legal challenges to the process.

Tshiwalule is a senior manager for the City of Johannesburg, where he has been working since 2017. He was previously an adviser in Mkhwebane’s private office, but resigned a month after she began her term in October 2016.

Tshiwalule provided administrative, legal and investigative support and was listed in a draft version of Mkwhebane’s report on the Reserve Bank’s lifeboat loan to Bankkorp, detailed in the CIEX report. Raedani worked on the Vrede dairy report, among others. 

The committee, which comprises 26 MPs, has heard from eight witnesses since beginning hearings in July. To date, it has heard predominantly critical testimony regarding Mkhwebane’s tenure.

Mkhwebane has been accused of allowing the State Security Agency (SSA) to interfere with the Section 9 institution’s work, including the contents of its controversial CIEX report. She worked for the SSA before becoming public protector.

Former senior investigator advocate Tebogo Kekana said Mkhwebane met with SSA seniors, including then director-general Arthur Fraser, and privately spoke with state security minister David Mahlobo.

Mkhwebane’s lawyer said she reported an SSA meeting with three seniors. He emphasised Kekana was not privy to the meeting with Mahlobo so could not know its contents and Mkhwebane briefly met with Mahlobo out of courtesy.

Last week, former head of security in the office of public protector Baldwin Neshunzhi said Fraser called to admonish him for not giving Mkhwebane sufficient support. Neshunzhi said SSA operatives visited the office during the CIEX report investigation, including to offer IT support.

“I’m not sure about the frequency of their visits because I didn’t see them frequenting and I was not informed if they usually meet the public protector,” he said.

The office’s head in the Free State, Sphelo Samuel, and Kekana accused Mkwhebane gave orders to exclude politicians Ace  Magashule and former MEC of agriculture Mosebenzi Zwane from adverse findings in the first report on the topic. Zwane, noted Samuel, was a guest at Mkhwebane’s 50th birthday party in 2020.

Kekana also criticised Mkwhebane for meeting with then Free State premier Magashule in private, after initially showing reluctance to meet him when she was investigating the Vrede dairy scam.

Samuel — who was suspended in a disciplinary process he asserted was prejudicial and then reinstated earlier this year — claimed Mkhwebane refused to issue subpoenas for Magashule and Zwane. Former CEO in the office of the public protector Vussy Mahlangu insisted disciplinary processes in the office were correctly pursued when staff erred.

Mkhwebane has been depicted favourably in input from some MPs and her lawyer, senior advocate Dali Mpofu, who dismissed several critics as disgruntled colleagues.

So far, one of the most positive and sympathetic testimonies about Mkhwebane’s conduct came from Mahlangu. Mkhwebane and Mahlangu were members of a small study group at university. He told the committee he and Mkhwebane had sporadic contact before he was hired in her private office in 2018.

Scrutiny

President Cyril Ramaphosa provisionally suspended Mkhwebane in June, citing the Section 194 process. The committee had long been established, and his timing came under scrutiny in light of a pending court judgment and an investigation into his conduct.

Ramaphosa was, by then, the subject of a public protector investigation after African Transformation Movement president Vuyo Zungula laid a complaint about the Phala Phala robbery of a large sum of US dollars in cash from Ramaphosa’s farm in 2020. Mkhwebane sent him 31 questions to answer. The president insisted there was nothing untoward in his timing.

His spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya said Ramaphosa and Mkhwebane were obliged by law “to act in the best interest of the country” and the suspension was “the best manner to fulfil these obligations” to protect, uphold and defend the constitution.

When Ramaphosa suspended Mkhwebane the committee had not yet heard from witnesses, leading to her argument the process had not truly begun. By March the committee appointed evidence leaders, senior advocate Nazreen Bawa and advocate Ncumisa Mayosi. In May, the committee called for public participation.

On the first day set down for witness testimony, Mpofu argued Mkhwebane’s inability to access her work email was a direct result of the suspension, which he claimed was geared at sabotaging her.

Several days later parliament’s legal adviser, Fatima Ebrahim, reported Mkhwebane’s email access was restored.

batese@businesslive.co.za