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President Cyril Ramaphosa.
- The Presidency says that a report that President Cyril Ramaphosa is plotting to arrest Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane is a “total fabrication”.
- It was reported that “someone from Ramaphosa’s office made a WhatsApp call” to pressure the police to arrest Mkhwebane.
- Mkhwebane fears this is part of a plot to eliminate her.
The Presidency has dismissed a report that President Cyril Ramaphosa is “conspiring” to have the Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane arrested as a “total fabrication”.
On Monday, The Star reported that an unidentified source said: “… someone from Ramaphosa’s office made a WhatsApp call” to pressure the police to arrest Mkhwebane on perjury charges.
The publication reported that Ramaphosa intends to suspend Mkhwebane.
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The report accused Ramaphosa of suspending Mkhwebane before he published his report on Defense Minister and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s flight to Harare in September, in which he transported ANC officials. Ramaphosa approved Mapisa-Nqakula’s visit abroad, albeit in contravention of the Ministerial Manual.
“The report makes claims about President Cyril Ramaphosa and the presidential staff that are simply false and for which the newspaper does not provide evidence,” a statement from Ramaphosa spokesman Tyrone Seale read in a statement.
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“President Ramaphosa has no knowledge or involvement in the matters referred to in the article.”
He said the report made very serious claims about Ramaphosa’s conduct, “… without any factual basis.”
He said Ramaphosa, “… is firmly committed to the rule of law and due process. He has never interfered and will never interfere in any criminal investigation or other legal process.”
Fears
On Sunday, City Press reported that Mkhwebane fears a perjury charge, and that Ramaphosa would use this to suspend her. She says the charges are part of a campaign to remove her from office.
The perjury charges filed last year in August by the civil society group Accountability Now, based on the findings of the Constitutional Court, following the case between the Reserve Bank of South Africa and the Office of the Public Protector after the The Constitutional Court determined that she had, “… put forward a series of falsehoods.”
Mkhwebane said that even if she was suspended, her office team would continue all the high-profile investigations they were already conducting, City Press reported.
The only mechanism for Ramaphosa is in terms of Section 194 of the Constitution, when the National Assembly initiates deportation proceedings against the director of a Chapter 9 institution.
Such a process is currently ongoing, but Ramaphosa has indicated that it will not suspend Mkhwebane until his judicial process against the deportation process is completed.
Mkhwebane was unsuccessful in the first part of the request, requesting an injunction to stop the proceedings, but the second part, in which he asks the courts to declare unconstitutional and invalid the rules of the National Assembly for the removal of a head of the Chapter 9 will be heard in February next year.
