By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has suffered another legal blow, the High Court in Pretoria has set aside portions of a third report, in which former SARS deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay is implicated.
It has declared the remedial action against him as unlawful, and ordered that it be set aside.
The court found that Mkhwebane, completely failed to give any notice to Pillay of the investigation, and he was, therefore, not granted the right to be heard on the remedial action that was being contemplated against him.
The Court declared such conduct a violation of Pillay’s Constitutional rights.
The Public Protector’s report into “allegations of maladministration and improper conduct relating to irregular procurement processes by the South African Revenue Services (SARS) in the appointment of Budge, Barone & Dominick (Pty) Ltd (BB&D)”, is her third attempt at bringing a bid against Pillay in the event of his early retirement.
In the two previous cases that were also set aside by the courts, the Public Protector made adverse accusations against Pillay regarding his early retirement from SARS and his pension benefits, his appointment as the former SARS Deputy Commissioner, and also implicated him in the establishment of a SARS investigative unit, deemed by the Public Protector to be “rogue”.
Pillay testified on Friday in the proceedings of the section 194 parliamentary inquiry into the fitness of Mkhwebane to hold office, where he highlighted a litany of similar abuses of power in the investigations conducted by the public protector against him.
The public protector was ordered to pay the costs of this application on the unopposed scale.
The public protector office meanwhile said it won’t oppose any of the legal challenges brought against Mkhwebane’s latest report on SARS – in which she recommended criminal investigation against current and former SARS commissioners Edward Kieswetter and Pravin Gordhan.