Mkhwebane: Anatomy of a serious stuff up
'Nothing in the constitution‚ the Public Protector Act or in our case law gives her the powers to instruct lawmakers to change our supreme law'
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane must have learnt her first important lesson since she took office in November last year — that holding office doesn’t give one the carte blanche to do as one pleases. It’s common sense to expect the findings and instructions of the head of a Chapter Nine institution to be legally sound‚ especially a body like the Public Protector‚ which has become so central in combating the flagrant abuse of public power we have witnessed under President Jacob Zuma’s scandal-prone administration. Mkhwebane has made a number of questionable moves and statements since she took over from her revered predecessor Thuli Madonsela. Her worst decision in her short tenure has got to be her instruction to parliament to change the constitution in order to tinker with the mandate and the independence of the SA Reserve Bank. Let’s recap. A few weeks ago‚ Mkhwebane found against Absa/Bankorp in a case involving the bank’s liability for the repayment of the R1.1 billion lifeboa...
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