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Supreme court justices have questioned the rationality of Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s report, which among others found that Ramaphosa deliberately misled Parliament when he initially denied knowledge of a Bosasa donation.
Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane at the Johannesburg Constitutional Court on July 22, 2019. Image: Sethembiso Zulu / EWN
JOHANNESBURG – Public Protector’s attorneys face an uphill battle in the Constitutional Court as they attempt to defend their appeal from a previous ruling that overturned their convicting report on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s CR17 fundraising.
Supreme court justices have questioned the rationality of Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s report, which among others found that Ramaphosa deliberately misled Parliament when he initially denied knowledge of a Bosasa donation.
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Judge Rammaka Mathopo disagreed with this part of the report, stating that deliberate use of the word, interchangeably with other words, even though Ramaphosa later corrected his initial submission, could lead to an erroneous legal conclusion.
“The Public Protector is a lawyer and you are a lawyer and we know those terms do not mean the same thing. If you speak of inadvertent, you are in another area. But if you speak of an intentional deliberate area. “
Meanwhile, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has questioned whether the Public Protector has the right to direct other constitutional officials, including the National Director of Public Prosecution, on what action to take against Ramaphosa.
“Are you saying that there is an aspect of that particular corrective action that is certainly wrong, but not that corrective action in its entirety?”
Arguing in favor of Mkhwebane, defender Muzi Sikhakhane conceded that some issues in the report may have been combined, but insists this does not mean that the entire report should be painted with the same brush.
The Pretoria High Court ruled that Mkhwebane mistakenly confused the president’s office with the CR17 campaign, which was a private matter.
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