Axed Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane on Monday scoffed at her removal from office, saying the more than two-thirds majority vote should have been used for the expropriation of land or to change the mandate of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).
Mkhwebane took to X (Twitter) about two hours after Parliament voted to remove her from office.
She posted a photo showing herself wearing blue overalls, tilling the land.
“Working the land and this 2⁄3 majority vote to remove me should have been for expropriation of land or (to) change the mandate of SARB,” Mkhwebane posted.
Hours before her removal, Mkhwebane shared a poster congratulating the three clean audits by the Public Protector South Africa since she took office in 2017.
“To all staff who made this possible and protect(ed) the poor and marginalised, Ngiyathokoza (thank you),” she wrote.
Her impeachment took place just less than 33 days before her seven-year term officially ends.
Her removal was secured by more than the required two-thirds of votes when 318 MPs voted in favour of her removal. Only 43 voted against and one abstained.
“The question is agreed and advocate B Mkhwebane is accordingly removed from the office of the public protector according to the recommendation of this House,” National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said when announcing the results.
MPs voted along party lines, except for Cope, as party leader Mosiuoa Lekota abstained and his colleague Teboho Loate voted in support of the motion.
All the ANC MPs voted in favour of Mkhwebane’s removal along with the DA, IFP, Freedom Front Plus, ACDP, Good Party and NFP.
The EFF MPs voted against her removal along with the UDM, ATM, PAC and Al-jama-ah.
The EFF has threatened to take the report on judicial review.
Mkhwebane’s removal is a sequel to a motion table by former DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone in December 2019.
It was not until last month that the Section 194 Inquiry found that she was guilty of misconduct and incompetence.
Tabling his report, inquiry chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi said the committee established that Mkhwebane misconducted herself and was incompetent.
“She is therefore not fit for this esteemed office with which she has been entrusted,” Dyantyi said.
He also said Mkhwebane, who claimed to have participated in the inquiry under protest, did not raise any valid defence for her conduct to sway them.
“She never answered the many questions which the committee put to her on the substance of the matters before us, instead adopting an adversarial approach where she maintained that the process has been inherently and irreparably unfair and biased, and the outcome predetermined.”
EFF MP Omphile Maotwe said the inquiry’s report was grossly unfair to Mkhwebane and was nothing more than a vindictive political witch-hunt.
“Here today, the uninformed majority seeks to railroad all of us to impeach a person not liked by the establishment,” Maotwe said.
“This report was hurried and ignored the basic principles of fairness,” she said.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said Mkhwebane committed a cardinal sin by investigating President Cyril Ramaphosa’s funding for his presidential campaign in the ANC.
Policy analyst Nkosikhulule Nyembezi said: “Those hoping for a finality should not hold their breath yet. A new political map of South Africa emerged out of yesterday’s voting on the impeachment motion. The map matters.
“It is important to grasp what it means for ANC prospects to remain in power after next year’s election and what it does not mean. It mainly means that Mkhwebane is on course for a retaliatory strike in court against Ramaphosa’s faction using the reserve ammunition she has long been banking on since her initial investigation into the CR17 finances began.
“She is also likely to strike outside court through valuable revelations to amplify the allegations against the ANC cited during their debate of the impeachment motion.
“The voting partner on the motion is a sign of how high the opposition’s expectations were raised by the ANC factional fighting debacles of 2017 that there is suddenly now such nervousness about what more Mkhwebane’s fight to keep her exit remuneration package and to vindicate her position as a competent public protector can benefit anyone who wants to see Ramaphosa’s impeachment ahead of next year’s election.”
Cape Times