Mkhwebane wants probe into her competence scrapped, says it’s irrevocably tainted

Suspended Public Protector, advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, wants Parliament’s Section 194 inquiry into her fitness to hold office scrapped.

She says it has been irrevocably tainted by attempts to bribe her.

Alternatively, the suspended public protector says the committee’s chairperson should recuse himself.

The advocate’s bid to have the Section 194 Inquiry into her fitness to hold office scrapped is not a first.

The full bench of the Western Cape High Court dismissed her bid to have it declared unlawful and set aside with costs in April.

However, she again brought into question the integrity of the commission during a media briefing today, where she played damning audio clips of her husband, David Skosana, in discussion with the late ANC MP, Tina Joemat-Pettersson.

The late ANC MP was allegedly trying facilitate a R600 000 bribe for herself and fellow ANC senior Parliamentarians, Qubudile Dyantyi, who chairs the Section 194 Inquiry into Mkhwebane’s competence and the governing party’s Chief Whip, Pemmy Majodina. The trio allegedly wanted R200 000 each to make the investigation against her disappear.

However, the Public Protector did not produce any audio recordings linking Majodina and Dyantyi to the scandal, in which they have publicly denied involvement.

Joemat-Pettersson passed away at her home under unknown circumstances as the scandal began to gain  momentum in public.

It is suspected that she took her life and Mkhwebane believes that she would still be alive today had National Assembly Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, agreed to a private meeting she had proposed. 

Non-Profit organisation, Corruption Watch, says the circumstances surrounding Joemat-Pettersson’s death must be investigated.

YNews spoke with the organisation’s Executive Director, Karam Singh, who called into question the timing of the suspected suicide.

Singh has also called for the leaked recordings to undergo a rigorous verification process to determine their authenticity.

The suspended Public Protector says she was removed illegally from her office in a bid to cover-up President Cyril Ramaphosa’s criminal conduct in the Phala Phala scandal. 

She claims that some of the messages from Joemat-Pettersson suggested that the inquiry into her competence had a pre-determined outcome.

Mkhwebane claims that the former Energy Minister had eerily remarked to her husband, shortly before her death, that the courts belonged to Ramaphosa.

The suspended Public Protector says she has shared evidence at her disposal with the police and the Hawks, among others.