Cape Town - Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane will finally get to tell her side of the story to Parliament’s Section 194 Inquiry into her fitness to hold office.
Mkhwebane will have two weeks to prepare her case and to call witnesses.
Senior counsel Dali Mpofu indicated that among the witnesses that Mkhwebane’s legal team would be calling were her predecessor, Thuli Madonsela, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and the DA’s Natasha Mazzone when the committee resumes on November 28.
Madonsela’s name popped up on Friday during Mpofu’s cross-examination of PPSA Legal Services senior manager Cornelius van der Merwe.
Mpofu told the inquiry Madonsela had written an article in 2019 in which she was critical of Mkhwebane and her methods.
Meanwhile, the issue of the publication of legal fees to certain lawyers returned to the committee, with Mpofu accusing Van der Merwe of being malicious.
During cross-examination, Mpofu asked Van der Merwe what purpose the publication of names served.
Van der Merwe said he did not understand why providing the committee with the information that it had requested was considered problematic.
Earlier, committee chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi had dismissed a request by Mpofu that only a redacted version of the schedule of legal fees paid by the PPSA be flighted at the hearing.
This followed a submission by evidence leader advocate Nazreen Bawa SC, in which she said she wished to rectify certain errors on the controversial schedule of legal fees that Van der Merwe had taken the committee through during the previous week.
Bawa proposed that following discussions with Mpofu on Thursday night, she would display a redacted version of the schedule without the names of legal practitioners if the committee agreed to this compromise proposal.
Dyantyi said he had noted the proposal but despite Mpofu’s objections, ruled that the complete schedule, including the names of legal representatives, must be shown.
On Thursday, advocates Muzi Sikhakhane and Vuyani Ngalwana addressed the committee on their unhappiness about the publication of their names.
Sikhakhane accused Bawa of creating an impression that their payment amounted to looting public funds.
“She throws the selected black advocates under the bus in order to advance the old racist stereotype that black is corrupt, which we reject; whether she intended it or not is irrelevant.”
On Friday Bawa flighted the corrected fees, with Van der Merwe highlighting that the amount reflected as having been paid to Sikhakhane was less than the previous figure reflected.
Some of the errors related to amounts being displayed in the incorrect columns.
The previous schedule reflected Ngalwana as having been paid R4.7m. The committee heard that the correct figure was R3.4m, with the balance having been paid to Mpofu, whose fees on the corrected schedule were closer to R13.5m than the R12.2m which had been shown.
The committee heard that these fees included VAT and reflected the amount before income tax was paid by the practitioners.