By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane continued to insist that president Cyril Ramaphosa failed to meet his obligations to declare the R500 000 donation from Bosasa to Parliament.
The courts have, however, found that the president was not obliged to declare that payment, because it was his to his CR17 campaign and did not amount to a personal benefit.
Mkhwebane and her legal counsel Adv Dali Mpofu have spent considerable time going through the evidence submitted by Ramaphosa in response to the Public Protector’s CR17 investigation, which was invalidated by the courts.
Throughout her testimony this week, Mkhwebane has maintained that the reason she has been hauled before the parliamentary inquiry into her fitness to hold office was due to a daring investigation of the politically-powerful.
Before she could begin testifying, Advocate Nazreen Bawa asked Section 194 Committee chairperson, Qubudile Dyantyi to allow her to question the Public Protector on CR17 before they move on to the next topic.
Bawa explained she made the request because the CR17 evidence was “still fresh” in the committee and Mkhwebane’s mind.
“The second advantage is that the respective teams would have finished off on the particular section,” she said, adding that this would make writing their heads of argument easier.
Mpofu, said the legal team was “totally against that proposal”.
“It’s completely impractical what is being suggested,” Mpofu responded.
But Dyantyi said he wants to “err on the side of not disturbing the flow” of the evidence and the committee to “proceed as planned”.
“The practical is key because we would have not featured that in our planning,” the chairperson said.
During proceedings, Mkhwebane reiterated that the suspicious of money laundering on the CR17 campaign was substantiated by the evidence before her office, saying that money moved through multiple accounts.
She told the inquiry that the campaign may have received an “estimated” amount of R1.2 billion.
‘I did not calculate how much it was because I said there were amounts of R300 million [or] R400 million [but] I wouldn’t say it was the total. It’s just an estimation,” she said, adding that the campaign managers estimated it was around R200 million.
Questioned by Mpofu on her competence, Mkhwebane said evidence of her achievements countered claims that she was incompetent.
Among her achievements were: – Going through the “comprehensive” list of complaints levelled in relation to the SA Revenue Service high-risk unit, which became the subject of multiple targets after it started investigating alleged organised criminal enterprises.
Asked about her previous work at the State Security Agency (SSA) and her secondment to China as a home affairs attaché, Mkhwebane said her position required security clearance. Referring to the days after she assumed office, Mpofu said Mkhwebane was already “in the firing line”.
On giving SARS official Johann van Loggerenberg right of reply in her investigation, because he was not a decision-maker, she said he was an “affected party, not an implicated party”.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of Parliament.