EDITORIAL: Public protector’s blunder astonishing and embarrassing
Mkhwebane is going to find it hard to defend her findings
The size and scope of the public protector’s blunder in the investigation of the South African Reserve Bank lifeboat to Bankorp and the CIEX report is mind-boggling. Within a couple of weeks of releasing her first report of major significance, Busisiwe Mkhwebane has had to admit that she was completely wrong in law and that it made no sense that the Constitution would confer on the public protector the authority to rewrite the Constitution itself. As a result, she has withdrawn her proposals to revise the mandate of the Reserve Bank and has even offered to pay costs. On top of this embarrassment, more will soon follow. While Mkhwebane has suggested that these remedial provisions be set aside, she still intends to defend the rest of her report, in particular, that Absa should pay back the money that went into the Bankorp rescue. Absa, Minister of Finance Malusi Gigaba and the Reserve Bank are all challenging the factual basis for this conclusion. Mkhwebane is going to find it hard to...
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