By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane instructed investigators, probing the Vrede dairy farm, not to implicate politicians Ace Magashule and Mosebenzi Zwane.
This was revealed at the section 194 inquiry which resumed after a break due Mkhwebane’s court challenge.
Former Free State provincial Public Protector head Sphelo Samuel was testifying.
Before the proceedings began, Adv Dali Mpofu SC, for Mkhwebane, informed the committee that they wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa to invite him to testify before the committee.
Ramaphosa wrote back on Monday declining the invitation. Committee chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi says they’ll respond to the matter.
There had been a break last week to allow Mkhwebane and her legal team to prepare and participate in her court matter, which could scupper the proceedings.
Samuel confirmed his legal qualifications. He is an admitted attorney who joined the Public Protector’s Office in 2000.
He sent two affidavits to former National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise, to ask that Parliament investigate Mkhwebane, and also wrote a letter with a “friendly request” for Mkhwebane to resign. Days later, disciplinary proceedings against him were instituted.
Mkhwebane dismissed Samuel after he was charged with several allegations of misconduct.
The charges included writing and distributing a disparaging letter about Mkhwebane.
In June, the CCMA ordered the Public Protector to pay Samuel R1.5 million after he was dismissed in 2020.
While testifying at the impeachment inquiry, Samuel said former public protector Thuli Madonsela referred the first draft of the Estina report back because she was “not happy” that the investigation did not include an examination of the role of politicians.
He said Madonsela didn’t sign off on a provisional report and she wasn’t satisfied with the draft report.
Samuel said there were a few “peculiar changes” to an earlier draft of the Vrede report.
It referred to Public Protector TN Madonsela instead of Busisiwe Mkhwebane and included the name of the investigators Erika Cilliers and Tshiamo Mocumi. Mocumi wasn’t at the office anymore – he resigned in 2015.
The draft did not reflect the changes Madonsela wanted.
It is now emerged that the Public Protector’s office initially made serious findings against former Free State Premier Ace Magashule and former MEC of Agriculture Mosebenzi Zwane in the Estina probe.
They were implicated in the transactions and Samuel concluded that they were “culpable”. He made findings that Magashule and Zwane should be held liable because they had overall responsibility.
The Office of the Public Protector made serious findings against Zwane and Magashule, but it never made it into Mkhwebane’s final report.
These were absent when Mkhwebane published her Estina report. While she stands accused of making legally and evidentially unsustainable findings against Ramaphosa and Minister Pravin Gordhan, the Estina investigation appears to show that she bent over backwards to not make findings against Magashule and Zwane.
Livestream Video Below:
Video Courtesy of Parliament.