By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Retired Supreme Court of Appeal President Lex Mpati, who was appointed to investigate the Ismail Abramjee text saga that advocate Dali Mpofu addressed the section 194 committee on, cleared Constitutional Court justices and administration staff of leaking the court’s dismissal of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s rescission.
The investigation was sparked after self-described “legal expert” Ismail Abramjee sent an SMS to Parliaments legal counsel, advocate Andrew Breitenbach, regarding the outcome of Mkhwebane’s attempt to seek a rescission of the ConCourt’s judgment that the rules governing her impeachment inquiry were lawful.
In Abramjee’s text message to Breitenbach, he claimed that he had it “on very good authority that the ConCourt has declined to hear the Public Protector’s rescission application”.
In a report Mpati submitted to Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, he said: “The nature and content of the text message was alleged to suggest that Abramjee had inside knowledge of the matter in the Constitutional Court and its pending judgement which was yet to be delivered which suggested further that information was leaked to Abramjee.”
Mpofu now condemns this report as “bizarre” and contends that it unlawfully sought to “overturn” a report issue by Mkhwebane’s office on the Abramjee text saga.
Meanwhile Public Protector’s office allegedly paid a legal advisor R87 000 to write opinion pieces denouncing those who were critical of Mkhwebane.
This was revealed by Public Protector Legal Services manager Thembinkosi Sithole on Friday during the parliamentary inquiry into Mkhwebanes fitness to hold office.
Sithole said Mkhwebane’s office paid Paul Ngobeni large sums to write articles published in the “Africa News 24” website, which is no longer operational.
The R87 000 went towards articles that admonished those who were critical of Mkhwebane, such as former Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, former State Security Minister Ayanda Dlodlo and former Minister of State Security Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba.
Ngobeni was also paid R96 000 to provide legal opinion on Mkhwebane’s investigation into President Cyril Ramaphosa’s CR17 campaign.
This investigation was later invalidated in court.
Ngobeni, in 2007, went on the run from US law enforcement after being charged with larceny, forgery and practising while not an attorney. He was also disbarred in some US states.
Ngobeni was also a supporter of former president Jacob Zuma.
He also allegedly advised Mkhwebane to sue the government for providing “insufficient funding” to her office. This while he was being paid large sums by the same office for his legal advice.
Advocate Nazreen Bawa, an evidence leader in the hearing, questioned whether the articles Ngobeni wrote could be considered legal advice.
“Would you agree with me that this looks like invoices rendered for purposes of producing articles?” Bawa asked Sithole.
“To my recollection, advocate Ngobeni rendered opinions. Legal opinions, that is,” Sithole replied.
Bawa then questioned why Ngobeni’s invoices referred to articles that were published. “That is not an opinion, that is something that was published on AfricaNews24”.
The committee will resume next week on Thursday, with Sithole continuing.
Livestream Video Below:
Video Courtesy of Parliament.