By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has maintained she did not hide the fact that she had an intelligence report relating to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) “rogue unit” in her possession.
On Wednesday, at the Section 194 Inquiry into her fitness to hold office, Mkhwebane began testifying about her report on the so-called “rogue unit” at Sars.
In the 2019 report, Mkhwebane found that the establishment of the rogue unit was unlawful and that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, who was Sars commissioner at the time, had violated the Constitution.
She also stated in the report that the unit had conducted irregular and unlawful intelligence operations and that Sars failed to follow procurement rules when it bought equipment from the State Security Agency.
The Public Protector had further concluded that Gordhan had violated the Executive Ethics Code by deliberately misleading the National Assembly in 2016, when he failed to remember that a member of the Gupta family may have been present at a 2010 meeting.
She insisted that Gordhan was still guilty of violating the code even though the minister argued that he did not intentionally lie to Parliament.
In addition, Mkhwebane was accused of not disclosing that she was in possession of the classified 2014 rogue unit investigation report by then Inspector-General of Intelligence (IGI) Faith Radebe.
The document formed the basis of Mkhwebane’s report in which she claimed to have it “on good authority” that the IGI found that the “rogue unit” was not in line with Sars’ mandate and, therefore, violated the Constitution.
The inquiry last year heard evidence that EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu, who laid a complaint against Gordhan, had emailed the classified IGI document to a senior Public Protector official in 2018.
Mkhwebane argued that the report was anonymously dropped off at her office.
She explained to the committee that she did not list the IGI document as a source of information in her rogue unit report because she was “being security conscious”.
“[The Constitution] demands of me to issue a report unless then there are circumstances which I need to take into consideration for the protection of the security of the country or the information.”
Mkhwebane also said she did not understand why the courts came to the conclusion that she concealed the IGI report.
Earlier today, Mkhwebane said that reactions to her reports by the courts had been “blown out of proportion”.
Mkhwebane has also accused the media of being unfair to her while hitting out at judges whom she’s accused of sensationalism.
She said judges had a tendency to “sensationalise” when dealing with her and should avoid following a particular narrative.
Mkhwebane was responding to questions from her counsel related to her Sars rogue-unit report which was set aside by the High Court.
The court was also critical of Mkhwebane and her conduct.
“When it comes to me as the Public Protector, a lot of things and a number of things changed and I could pick up that whatever I do is actually just blown out of proportion.”
She urged judges to not take media reports too seriously.
“And unfortunately when it comes to me, and I’m still repeating, mainstream media has never been fair to me and they will always perpetuate a narration that manufactures concern.”
Mkhwebane continues her evidence which is expected to carry on until next week.
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Video Courtesy of Parliament.