Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has suspended the chapter nine institution’s Free State boss, Hamilton Samuel, after he penned and distributed a letter calling on Mkhwebane to resign following a string of high-profile judgments against her and allegations of mismanagement.

Mkhwebane’s office said Samuel was placed on precautionary suspension with immediate effect on Wednesday 11 March 2020, a day after he wrote to Mkhwebane calling on her to resign.

According to News24, Samuel said Mkhwebane should resign to “save whatever pride you may have left, admit to your flaws and failure to lead this institution, and tender your resignation, in the interests of the organisation and of the country”.

In a statement on Thursday, Mkhwebane’s office said Samuel wrote a “disparaging” letter to Mkhwebane on Tuesday 10 March, the same day the North Gauteng High Court set aside her report on Bosasa’s R500,000 donation to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s CR17 campaign.

“Mr Samuel emailed the letter to the public protector and copied staff. The correspondence in question subsequently surfaced in the public domain. He then conducted extensive media interviews on the letter, during which interviews he continued to disparage the public protector,” read the statement.

It continued: “He wrote and emailed the letter using office resources, including a branded letterhead and his official email. In so doing, not only did he disrupt operations at the public protector and incite staff to turn against the public protector, he abused the employer’s facilities to pursue his personal vendetta against the public protector and to deal with matters that have nothing to do with his official responsibilities.”

Samuel has been suspended on full pay while the public protector’s office investigates his conduct.

Samuel already faces a disciplinary hearing after he was convicted of assaulting Nchaube Peter Seabi, who reportedly launched a civil claim against the public protector’s office for R350,000 at the institution’s offices in Limpopo in 2011.

The public protector’s statement on Thursday said people often approach the institution when they are in distress.

“To have them assaulted by no less than a senior manager and have a court of law affirm the assault with a conviction can under no circumstances be tolerated. This is more so when there is a policy on how to handle difficult complainants.”

Samuel is appealing the conviction and has claimed Mkhwebane is using the case to purge him from the institution.

Samuel made headlines in February 2020 after asking Parliament to investigate Mkhwebane’s alleged mismanagement, poor treatment of staff and handling of politically sensitive investigations, such as her report on the Estina dairy farm scandal, which was overturned in court.

In an affidavit sent to Speaker Thandi Modise, Samuel claimed Mkhwebane had scrapped an internal process where public protector officials would provide input on draft reports before they were completed. Samuel claimed the majority of staff at the public protector had lost faith in Mkhwebane.

“The institution is now directionless and may not recover from the ruin it is destined for under the leadership of Adv Mkhwebane,” Samuel wrote.

The public protector’s spokesperson Oupa Sekgalwe dismissed the claims as those of a disgruntled employee facing disciplinary action.

In multiple court judgments overturning her reports, Mkhwebane has been criticised of failing to understand her role and correctly apply the law. She has been found to have been dishonest and of failing to meet the standards expected of her office.

The latest ruling from the North Gauteng High Court on Tuesday that set aside her report on Ramaphosa’s CR17 campaign finances found she had failed to properly quote the Executive Members Ethics Code, relied on the wrong law in her finding that there was a prima facie case of money laundering against Ramaphosa, which there was no evidence for, and had broadened the scope of her investigation outside of her jurisdiction.

Parliament has launched a process that could lead to Mkhwebane’s removal, but the public protector is going to court to challenge the lawfulness and constitutionality of the National Assembly rules adopted to remove chapter nine institution leaders.

The case is expected to be heard in the Western Cape High Court next week. DM