By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Parliament is expected to resume its impeachment process against Public Protector (PP) Busisiwe Mkhwebane next Tuesday.
The Constitutional Court earlier this month ruled that the house can proceed with the process in a judgment that was reserved in November last year.
In a unanimous judgment penned by Justice Nonkosi Mhlanta, the ConCourt granted Parliament and the DA direct appeal due to the matter being “urgent” and of “public importance”.
Mkhwebane must now be allowed legal representation when the hearings take place.
The process does not have to start from scratch because the court found nothing unconstitutional had taken place in the process so far.
At the National Assembly Programming Committee’s meeting on Thursday, DA deputy chief whip Siviwe Gwarube enquired about the committee, which is called a Section 194 committee after the section of the Constitution dealing with the removal of the head of a Chapter 9 institution.
House chairperson, or chair of chairs as he’s known in Parliament, Cedric Frolick, said he signed off on the committee meeting on Tuesday.
He said the committee would then determine its programme.
In August last year, after a ruling by the Western Cape High Court put the brakes on the proceedings, the Section 194 committee had already been constituted, with ANC MP Richard Dyantyi elected as its chairperson, but it hadn’t started with the inquiry.
In line with the court’s ruling, which the Constitutional Court upheld, Mkhwebane will be entitled to have a legal representative during the hearings.
In December 2019, days after the National Assembly adopted rules for removing a Chapter 9 head, like the Public Protector, DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone brought a motion for Mkhwebane’s removal to former National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise.
However, in February 2020, Mazzone withdrew the motion and lodged another, with what Mazzone considered evidence for Mkhwebane’s removal.
The process then stalled as Parliament was seized with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Modise appointed Justice Bess Nkabinde, advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza SC and advocate Johan de Waal SC in November last year to an independent panel, which had to determine whether there was a prima facie case for Mkhwebane’s removal.
The panel reported to Modise in February 2021, with the finding that there was a prima facie case to institute removal proceedings against Mkhwebane.
On 16 March 2021, the National Assembly decided to impeach Mkhwebane – the first Chapter 9 head to suffer this fate.
The Section 194 committee must report back to the National Assembly with a recommendation on whether or not Mkhwebane should be removed.