President Cyril Ramaphosa has squashed the suggestion that he ought to testify at suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s impeachment hearings.
Proceedings into Mkhwebane’s health to carry workplace kicked off on Monday, with some folks having already testified at the Section 194 Inquiry.
The suspended Public Protector is the primary head of a Chapter 9 establishment to face a parliamentary inquiry.
On Tuesday, UDM president Bantu Holomisa proposed that Ramaphosa ought to come earlier than Parliament and provides proof.
Holomisa stated he was of the view that the president ought to testify as nicely over his ANC presidential marketing campaign of 2017, which was investigated by Mkhwebane.
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“Would it be fair for this committee to invite the president, just to make sure that everything is above board, because we are not going to succeed if we are going to ask the Public Protector and grill her alone, based on the judgment, which may have been a mistake,” Holomisa stated in Parliament.
Last 12 months, the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) dismissed Mkhwebane’s software for go away to enchantment a excessive court docket ruling, which put aside her report into the CR17 marketing campaign.
The apex court docket at the time had dominated that Mkhwebane modified the Executive Ethics Code to align along with her findings in her CR17 report, amongst different issues.
The Public Protector’s rescission software was additionally dismissed by the ConCourt in March 2022.
‘Baseless, misdirected’
Holomisa had additionally argued the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture had discovered the repeated “misuse of public funds” by the ANC and claimed “right now nobody knows whether there were state funds which could have gone via the CR17 campaign”.
“We want to know from the president, take us into confidence. The whole country,” the UDM MP stated.
READ MORE: Timeline: How Mkhwebane’s impeachment will unfold
The Presidency on Wednesday responded to Holomisa’s suggestion, saying Ramaphosa “cannot be compelled to provide evidence proving or disproving these accusations” as a result of the president didn’t make any allegations towards Mkhwebane.
“Accordingly, President Ramaphosa rejects the suggestion by Bantu Holomisa that he should give evidence on his 2017 party political campaign during the section 194 inquiry,” Presidency spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya stated in a statement.
Magwenya labelled Holomisa’s claims that the CR17 marketing campaign “may have” used public funds as “baseless, misdirected and vindictive”.
“It is an abuse of parliamentary processes and privilege. It has by no means been alleged that public funds have been utilized by the CR17 marketing campaign.
“The [ConCourt] judgement last year ruled that the Public Protector had no authority to investigate the CR17 campaign, given that this was not an organ of state and therefore not within the Public Protector’s remit,” he stated.
“The section 194 inquiry into Advocate Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office is not a platform to make unsubstantiated allegations that fall outside of the scope of inquiry,” Magwenya added.
‘Rightfully summon’
Reacting to the Presidency’s assertion on Wednesday afternoon, Holomisa stated: “Irrespective of the [ConCourt] ruling, there is a symbiotic relationship between the Public Protector’s investigation of the CR17 campaign, and others such as Phala Phala farm, and the fact that the President has acted against her, which needs unpacking, because the chairperson of this committee insisted that it must not compromise the principle of fairness.”
Holomisa seemingly additional steered that Ramaphosa needs to be summoned as an alternative to look in Parliament.
“Advocate Mkhwebane’s suspension nonetheless calls on us to pause, for can an individual who’s being investigated, droop the investigator.
READ MORE: Phala Phala theft: DA contemplating ‘legal options’ after Parliament declines request
“The President as the custodian of our national constitution should know better what should happen when there is a conflict of interest such as this. We will wait to hear what the ruling is in terms of the committee’s rights on whom they can rightfully summon to appear before them,” his statement reads.
Mkhwebane was suspended by Ramaphosa on 9 June, the day after she confirmed the investigation into the president concerning the $4 million farm theft, with the timing being questioned by Holomisa.
The investigation is at the moment ongoing.
Other investigations by the Public Protector are associated to the controversial South African Air Force flight to Zimbabwe in 2020, on which senior ANC officers acquired a carry, allegations of judicial seize, and claims that Ramaphosa knew concerning the abuse of state funds through the ANC’s elective conferences.