Mkhwebane urges Parliament to "back off" and threaten lawsuits – report



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Busisiwe Mkhwebane, the Public Protector's lawyer, has threatened legal action to defend her position, urging Parliament to back down on an investigation into her suitability for a job, a report released on Sunday said.

Mkhwebane wrote to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Thandi Modise, telling him that she would meet her in court if Parliament tried to fire her, the Sunday Times reported.

The AD asked earlier this year that Mkhwebane's ability to hold a position be reviewed for the third time since taking office in 2016.

Modise referred the request to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Corrections, News24 reported in June.

In the letter, Mkhwebane alleges that Modise violated the Constitution by acceding to the Prosecutor's request to ask the committee to consider the issue, reported the weekly.

& # 39; Incompetent & # 39;

His main argument was that, although the Constitution allows for the removal of the Public Protector, Parliament has not adopted any rules as to how this process should be governed.

Parliament spokeswoman Moloto Mothapo said Modise responded by saying the process would continue.

Fin24 had previously reported that calls for the resignation of Mkhwebane with the DA seeking to revive a parliamentary process to remove him from office have intensified.

The People's Congress called for Mkhwebane's head, describing her as "incompetent".

The trade union federation Cosatu said that President Cyril Ramaphosa should set aside all reports of Mkhwebane until his competence and reliability have been verified.

The organization Abuse Tax Abuse Tax also asked that the reports of the Protecteur du citoyen be set aside until his aptitude for a position was examined.

READ Ramaphosa will inform the country of the Bosasa report of the Protecteur du citoyen

In May, the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria declared unconstitutional the Mkhwebane report on the Estina dairy project and dismissed it on the grounds that it had failed to investigate and to report on the controversial project.

On Friday, Mkhwebane discovered that Ramaphosa had deliberately "misled" the European Parliament in response to a question about a $ 500,000 donation to the 2017 ANC presidential campaign of the controversial Bosasa company last November.

She also said that her campaign should be investigated on money laundering and that Ramaphosa should declare all donations received during her campaign.

In a 51-page statement to Mkhwebane before his findings were released this week, which News24 saw, the president told him that all the findings against him were baseless, News24 reported.

"The president does not accept that the Québec Ombudsman has the jurisdiction to investigate the CR17 campaign and to draw conclusions about it," reads the brief.

Ramaphosa's lawyers argued that his fundraising campaign was in his capacity as a member and leader of the ANC, not a public office holder.

Ramaphosa should inform the nation of the Bosasa report of the Protector of the citizen Sunday.

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