Cape Town - Despite myriad delays, Parliament’s inquiry into suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office is looking to wind up its business by April 28 this year.
Members of the committee met on Tuesday ahead of the day’s hearings, scheduled for the afternoon, to discuss issues surrounding, and causes of, delays in the committee’s work.
Last week, the committee was forced to adjourn two hearings after scheduled evidence from a subpoenaed witness PPSA (Public Protector South Africa) investigator Bianca Mvuyana went unheard.
The committee which on Tuesday began proceedings at noon instead of the usual 10am, issued its revised programme which showed that it will only work from 10am to 1pm today) but return to full days on Thursday and Friday.
Committee chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi said on March 1 and 2 they would hear the testimony of former public protector Thuli Madonsela, and that they would then allocate Mkhwebane 10 days to testify beginning on March 15.
“When we wrap up, we will just finalise the outstanding minutes so we don’t have any backlog in that regard.”
The committee also addressed the issue of the correspondence between Dyantyi and Mkhwebane which she and her legal team, led by Dali Mpofu
SC, objected to last week, holding up the enquiry. Dyantyi had written a letter to Mkhwebane saying she had delayed the committee’s proceedings on purpose. Mkhwebane said this accusation was false and insulting, and insisted that Dyantyi withdraw it.
On Tuesday Dyantyi responded to Mkhwebane’s demands for a withdrawal of the letter, saying that as chairperson he was duty bound to ensure that the inquiry proceeded without delay.
Committee members backed Dyantyi’s position and said the constant back and forth of letters was further delaying their work.
The committee will today finish hearing testimony from PPSA chief investigator Rodney Mataboge, who testified yesterday afternoon.
He told the committee of his involvement in the investigations into the breach of the ethics code by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Mataboge was also involved in the probe into former SA Revenue Service deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay’s pension, the Bosasa/CR17 investigation and Vrede Dairy Project probe.