Cape Town - A former investigator in the Public Protector South Africa office, Advocate Livhuwani Tshiwalule, told the Section 194 Committee on Wednesday that he did not understand why he was asked to conduct research on central banks during the probe into the CIEX report.
During his testimony at the inquiry into the fitness of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to hold office, Tshiwalule said the incumbent asked him to do research on the ownership of central banks.
“I did not understand it because there was no link between the complaint that came from Advocate (Paul) Hoffman and her request.
“I had to comply. I did not understand where we were going. The issue with the complaint had nothing to do with what she was asking,” he said.
Tshiwalule joined the CIEX investigation when it had already started and interviews were already conducted with a number of people including former SA Revenue Service (SARS) governors Tito Mboweni and Gill Marcus, Hoffman, author of the CIEX report Michael Oakley.
He participated in the interviews conducted by former public protector Thuli Madonsela with former finance minister Trevor Manuel, ABSA former CEO Maria Ramos, former governor Chris Stalls, former director-general in the presidency Frank Chikane and former president Thabo Mbeki.
Tshiwalule said he had emailed a draft report to Madonsela in October 2016, but further work still needed to be done.
“We interviewed Chris Stalls around September. He had given us so much information. We were not on the right track on money paid. He was to prove that Absa did pay,” he said.
“That information was submitted late in September. I felt we did not have enough time to go through the evidence and say the report can go through,” he said, adding that there was research and case law that still had to be done.
Tshiwalule told the committee that when Mkhwebane took office, she requested to be briefed on the report as Madonsela had not released it.
Tshiwalule also said he had provided Mkhwebane with boxes containing evidence, which included transcripts of interviews and documents submitted by people who were interviewed.
He also said Mkhwebane signed the preliminary report and the notices that were to be sent to those implicated in the report so that they had an opportunity to comment.
Tshiwalule told the committee that Madonsela did not engage the services of an economic expert in the investigation.
He confirmed under cross-examination by Mpofu that the CIEX Investigation, which started in 2011, was among those Madonsela wanted to release before she left office.
“I was told there was a delay. It was unusual for an investigation to take long,” he said.
Mpofu put to him that Mkhwebane had to read the boxes of evidence and put a gloss on the issue as she was not to rubber stamp and sign the report.
“It was in that context she asked, after she read evidence, one of things she asked was how other reserve banks operated worldwide,” he said.
However, Tshiwalule said there was no explanation given by Mkhwebane.
“I found for a lack of better word bizarre in the sense that there was nothing from the complainant that suggested, perhaps, he wanted us to take that route. I had an issue with that part," he said.
Mpofu highlighted that an investigation was like an adjudication process.
“It can lead you to places you never imagined. An example is the Zondo report which was meant to investigate the Gupta alleged corruption,” he said.
“It has now been four years investigating all sorts of things beyond Gupta corruption. It even went as far as suggesting constitutional amendments on voting,” Mpofu said.
Cape Times