SECTION 194 INQUIRY
Strike Three – Mkhwebane ghosts Section 194 impeachment probe while lawyers collect fees
Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has missed two deadlines to provide responses to questions arising out of her Section 194 impeachment inquiry.
This is regardless of the payment of about R500,000 to her lawyers of record, Chaane Attorneys, out of the R4-million ringfenced to take care of Mkhwebane’s legal costs for the last lap of her impeachment.
Chaane have sat on Mkhwebane’s matter for more than a month, said Qubudile Dyantyi, committee chairperson, in a statement on Friday.
Dyantyi added that a request for another 30 days “appears to be deliberately geared to create an inevitable and untenable situation where the committee and the National Assembly will not be able to fulfil its constitutional obligations, despite the time and resources ploughed into this matter”.
Mkhwebane was about to ignore a third deadline offering her an opportunity to provide a closing statement defending her case, he said.
The chair of the multiparty committee announced that Mkhwebane had missed a 7 July deadline to respond to written questions by members and evidence leaders.
Grave concern
The committee had noted “with grave concern” Mkhwebane’s radio silence ever since.
These were not the first deadlines to be missed since the committee had been forced to “forge a new path after various challenges and delays”, said Dyantyi.
All this is despite the R4-million set aside to pay Mkhwebane’s legal fees and the fact that she had been granted permission to retain all three of her counsel at increased fees.
Two deadlines, 19 and 22 June, had been set for the suspended public protector to submit additional affidavits and documentation. Questions have been sent to her lawyers of choice, Chaane Attorneys.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Mkhwebane misses inquiry deadlines while lawyer bounces back after sudden hospitalisation
“The due date for responding to these questions was yesterday, 6 July 2023. It is unfortunate that the PP has decided to disregard this important process by not responding to the questions and thereby disrespecting the committee process as was agreed to by all participating Members on 9 June 2023,” said Dyantyi.
A deadline for Mkhwebane to indicate whether she would be making a closing statement in her defence was at the close of 7 July.
“Even though the PP has missed several deadlines, this is another opportunity for her to appraise the committee of her version of the events in terms of the motion before the committee,” said the chair.
Dragging their feet
Dyantyi urged the suspended public protector to use the opportunity to “take the public into confidence by utilising the platform being afforded to her”.
Mkhwebane and her attorneys, said Dyanti, had indicated that “they will not be bound by what they termed illegal deadlines set by the committee”.
Their excuse to the committee had been that counsel had not been briefed “to deal with the merits of the matter as Chaane Attorneys is still in the process of familiarising themselves with the record”.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Mkhwebane’s R10m payday only months away while impeachment inquiry silently continues
Dyantyi said that from 23 May 2023 to 4 June negotiations had taken place for the reappointment of advocate Dali Mpofu and two junior counsel.
More than a month had passed since Chaane Attorneys had been “on brief” and it appeared that Mkhwebane had still not instructed them, he said.
It was “very concerning” that Chaane Attorneys had taken the position that they needed a further month to familiarise themselves with the record “and that too is dependent on the ‘total availability of counsel’ during this period”.
Said Dyanti: “The precise purpose of this extended unlimited perusal for this long period and how it was arrived at is, of course, undisclosed, especially since approximately R500,000 or more of the allocated R4-million has, according to your letter, already been utilised (which I estimate to be minimum 20 full days of services already rendered by Chaane Attorneys).”
Read more in Daily Maverick: While Mkhwebane’s spell in office draws to a close one way or another, search begins for her successor
He suggested that it would appear that an instruction to brief counsel on the merits “may only be forthcoming from your client once the R4-million has been exhausted (or substantially spent) on unnecessary perusal fees coupled with the costs of a limited brief for purposes of bringing a recusal application”.
The committee, he concluded, would continue its work in terms of the timelines set. The committee is expected to finalise its work on 28 July 2023. DM
Brilliant stuff Mr Dyantyi! Stick to your guns and blow this Stalingrad nonsense out of the water I say.
We all know why the ex-pp is doing this, there’s 10bar in the offing if she stays her full term.8
Exactly!
Surely NOT at ANY abusive cost ?? It is time to rusticate and expose the so-called ‘legal eagles’ that are trying to ‘Trump” the system !!
We become so numb to the numbers that R4m seems like the leftovers at the bottom of the jar. In fact there was no obligation on behalf of the state to fund the PP’s defence at all, as as far as I can remember it was decided that she is allowed legal representation, but the state (i.e. we, the people) is not obligated to pay for it. With the way this has been allowed to drag on a part of me wonders if panelists were in fact paid to delay and subvert the inquiry to get her off the hook, or at least make the outcome moot as she sails off into retirement. What sanctions remain if her impeachment happens after her term has ended? Does she lose her pension? Can she be forced to pay vack the R30m used on her defence?
I doubt it
She will sail off with 10 bar and a middle finger erect
She must NOT be paid her huge and unwarranted pension until all the cases are settled, and at the end of it all, justified. It is so obvious what this highly dishonest and sleazy individual and her unscrupulous council are doing- delay, lie, obfuscate – so that time slips by and she is rewarded at the end of it all, with her prize. As if it is not disgusting enough that the taxpayer foots the legal bills for one so inept, compromised and vile, but allowing her to ride into the sunset would be a monstrous travesty of justice.
There are so many “monstrous travesties of justice” in the SA of today, that one cannot even tally them….
This PP court case has become so murky it just seems like too much bother to even try and unravel it. For someone accused of imcompetence at being a PP or even a graduate of law, she certainly knows how to foul it up. Just wonder who will outlast the game and at what cost to taxpayers. Role on post ANC reign. Time for these circus tents to be dismatled and all the clowns sent home, preferably behind bars and the stolen money back where it belongs. Attending to the needs of our people.
It is astounding the privilege she has been afforded. Another example of the fat cats in SA. R4m and counting whilst her legal council smiles all the way to the bank. This process must come to an end please 🙏
We all know what her tactic is. Waste time to secure her pension. Why is she not arrested for contempt? And why is she treated with kids gloves?
Can somebody please define the term “Deadline” to me. Especially when it has been used 3 times.
Apart from the obvious definition (which lawyers and the ANC have no understanding of) I rather like the historic meaning:
“a line drawn around a prison beyond which prisoners were liable to be shot”.
This lady should no longer be entertained. Stop wasting taxpayers money
Two questions:
When she reaches end of her term without being fired and the benefits package kicks off, will the benefits be reduced by deducting the various cost orders plus interest?
Where do people think she will resurface in a new job? I’d imagine in no state job. I’d imagine no corporate will go near her. So which law firm is she going to join? Probably one of the firms she handed out work to?
Answer to questions: 1) No. 2) No need to ‘work’ again.
There is 2 things at play here:
1. The ex-pp trying to stall things and collect pension etc. while making a mockery of the justice system.
2. The lawyers are collecting while doing nothing save for wasting everybody’s time and money, while making a mockery of the justice system.
We see this scenario play out in our courts on a daily basis at the cost of the people of SA and justice is just not done. The sad part is that the institutions / governing bodies (Judicial Service Commission, Magistrates Commission, Legal Practice Council, Human Rights Commission, etc.) that is supposed to prevent this abuse just does the same, do nothing and wait for it to go away.
This whole saga is an absolute joke – everyone knows what this woman & her legal counsel are doing, yet she is just allowed to continue insulting Parliament, Judicial processes & the people of this country to whom she has to account! It is disgraceful & the committee need to take the decision that she must be impeached on gross negligence & misconduct (or whatever the charges are), she is to be dismissed & certainly not receive a R10m pension that as the tax-payer, have to foot! She must then be prosecuted, along with her scam advocate & attorneys, for bringing the legal profession into disrepute with their Stalingrad tactics, disrespectful behaviour & deliberate attempt to prevent her from testifying. The legal fees that these lawyers are charging are criminal & should fall under the category of State Capture 2.0
Forgive my impertinence, I would never presume to correct Ms Thamm, but it seems she has more than one version of Qubudile Dyantyi’s name ‘added to dictionary’ – in this and the other article, it sometimes appears without the second ‘y’ as ‘Dyanti’.