Public Protector’s Deputy Exposes Cracks in Mkhwebane’s Office

Adding to the battles facing the public protector Busiswe Mkhwebane, her deputy has said she didn’t consult him on the controversially “flawed” ABSA-SARB report, and that there were lessons to be learnt from the recent setbacks Mkhwebane has been dealt in court.

“I don’t know anything about the Absa report, sitting here as the Deputy Public Protector … and I think that should’ve been done better,” Kevin Malunga said on eNCA’s PolitBureau on Monday night. “I think there is a lot of things that the office has gotten wrong, for example, I think we should be consulting each other a lot more.”

Last week the Constitutional Court upheld a Gauteng North High Court order that Mkhwebane pay a punitive personal cost order of 15 percent of the SARB’s legal fees in the case, after it held that her conduct fell “short of the high standards required of her office.” It is the latest of various court decisions to go against Mkhwebane.

At the same time, Reuters carried a story today highlighting the problems facing Mkhwebane, saying that she was “amplifying” battles within the ANC.

“To allies of President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s anti-corruption watchdog is a wrecking ball who is abusing her office and could derail efforts to clean up government and turn the economy around,” Reuters wrote. “To Ramaphosa’s opponents, she is holding the country’s top officials to account without fear or favour.”

After the interview on eNCA, Malunga – who himself applied for the post of public protector after Thuli Madonsela – was criticised on social media for being an opportunist and for throwing Mkhwebane under the bus. Floyd Shivambu of the EFF, which supports Mkhwebane, said Malunga “always plays to the gallery.” He said Malunga had done the same with Mkhwebane’s predecessor, Thuli Madonsela, distancing himself from her “with the hope that he’ll find favour with the establishment.”

In a Twitter response to Shivambu, Malunga said he would not be in the job much longer.

“You should watch the whole interview before jumping to conclusions,” he told Shivambu. “My interview dealt with the entire work of the Office of the Public Protector and how to build confidence. I have no one to please. I am done and will be moving to other things in any event.”

Malunga said that while the high-profile cases against Ramaphosa and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan were getting the lion’s share of attention, those matters accounted for less than a percent of the office’s work.

“I don’t lose sleep over politicians, whether it be Pravin, Ramaphosa, but I do lose sleep over that gogo with no pension seven years down the line. I certainly lose sleep over that refugee who says his permit is missing.

“I do lose sleep over that tender, that has led to service delivery protests. I lose sleep when I go to Kopela village and the people there tell me that they have not had water for six months. That’s what we do, 99 percent of the time,” he said.