Cape Town - Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has been granted her wish to have her predecessor, Thuli Madonsela, summoned to appear and testify before the parliamentary committee probing her fitness to hold office.
The committee spent its first meeting of the year weighing up the merits of applications from Mkhwebane’s legal team to summon five witnesses, including Madonsela, who had declined to testify voluntarily.
The five were Madonsela, Public Protector South Africa investigator Bianca Mvuyana, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, DA MP Natasha Mazzone and acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka.
Before making its decisions, the committee received a briefing from parliamentary legal adviser Fatima Ebrahim on the principles it should consider in its consideration of the applications.
The committee said it agreed to summon Madonsela because she would add value to the process as she had handled some of the investigations that constituted the subject matter of the motion before the committee.
It also agreed to Mkhwebane’s request to summon Mvuyana to testify.
However, it drew the line on summoning Gordhan, Mazzone and Gcaleka and dismissed the application to summon them as irrelevant.
Last year Mkhwebane’s legal team had wanted to call President Cyril Ramaphosa as a witness, but the committee obtained a legal opinion and resolved not to call him.
On Tuesday, committee chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi said: “The committee felt that bringing them before the committee would not add value to the work and mandate of the committee.”
He said committee members had agreed to work with the documentation already provided by the three in other forums.
Dyantyi said the committee agreed that engagements to secure the evidence of the agreed witnesses would start in earnest, as the committee wanted to adhere to its draft adopted programme, and wanted to finalise its work on April 21.