By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The office of the Public Protector has confirmed it has withdrawn its participation in all pending litigation instituted by suspended Busisiwe Mkhwebane in the name of the institution.
While it was initially thought the Public Protector’s office had left Mkhwebane out in the cold following her suspension by President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier last month, the institution has clarified its decisions.
Although the Public Protector’s office will not fund Mkhwebane’s urgent interdict to prevent her suspension, it said it will support her challenge of her suspension, as well as her defence during the upcoming impeachment proceedings.
This was how Acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka on Thursday explained the decision to withdraw the PPSA’s court challenge to Parliament’s impeachment proceedings against Mkhwebane.
The office will, however, fund Mkhwebane’s challenge to her suspension, her defence in the coming impeachment proceedings, and the criminal case of perjury against her.
On 9 June, Ramaphosa suspended Mkhwebane, who faces parliamentary impeachment proceedings.
The following day, the Western Cape High Court ruled against Mkhwebane in her application to interdict Ramaphosa from suspending her and Parliament continuing with her impeachment process.
This application was pending Part B to her application, in which she asks the court to declare unconstitutional and invalid, the letter National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula sent to Ramaphosa to inform him that the impeachment process was underway, as well as Ramaphosa’s steps to suspend her and the Section 194 process.
She has since approached the court to ask that it hear this application on an urgent basis, and amended the application to ask the court to declare her suspension unconstitutional, irrational and invalid.
On Monday, Mkhwebane also filed a notice of motion to seek leave to appeal the interdict ruling.
On Wednesday, Gcaleka wrote to all the respondents in the matter, including Parliament, Ramaphosa and the DA, as well as Mkhwebane, to inform them of her decision to withdraw the application for leave to appeal and the amended application to the Western Cape High Court.