Former public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane. (Photo: Gallo Images / Lubabalo Lesolle) 
The judiciary has noted with “disappointment and disapproval the racially charged” statements the disgraced former public protector had spread on social media after Supreme Court of Appeal judge Visvanathan Ponnan struck off the roll Mkhwebane’s attempt to scupper her Section 194 impeachment inquiry.
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In a statement, the Office of the Chief Justice noted that “a degeneration of discourse into racially charged comments is unacceptable and will not be tolerated”.
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Modern South Africa, it added, was founded on the values of “human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms, non-racialism and non-sexism, supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law, as affirmed in the Constitution of the Republic”.
Old animosities
However, Mkhwebane is merely following in the example of former EFF leader Floyd Shivambu, now a senior member of Jacob Zuma’s MK party, which is also home to Mkhwebane’s husband, David Skosana, in reviving old racial tensions.
In 2018, Shivambu opted to do so boldly in a blog post when he revived the notion from the 1980s (Shivambu was only born in 1983) that an “Indian Cabal” somehow controlled the rising Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) which ultimately led to the establishment of the UDF.
As noted by authors Chris Whitfield and Jonathan Ancer in their biography of Gordhan, Joining the Dots, Shivambu used the opportunity to revive the embers of memory.
Wrote Shivambu at the time: “The cabal was basically an Indian cabal that was put in place to slander the character and standing of African comrades in the MDM, and it was led by Pravin Gordhan.”
Shivambu, a man who was not there when this struggle was fought, opined: “Even when the MDM was confronted with a common enemy – the white settler colonial state – Pravin was keen on sowing divisions within MDM structures, [to] undermine and denigrate the role of mostly African leadership in the mass movement. The essence of Pravin’s ideological and political outlook was and remains collaboration with existing capitalist interests and undermining the overall leadership of the movement.”
Mkhwebane’s crude attack on Ponnan on social media dovetails perfectly with the ongoing rallying of the forces-of-the-implicated against the law and the Constitution, mostly in KZN.
That the late Gordhan was honoured with a state funeral in the war-torn province and the heartland of these forces, was not unplanned or unnoticed. Gordhan was aware that these tensions continued to smoulder but had jumped field to MK and the EFF.
In her post, Mkhwebane lamented that she was “disappointed and disheartened” by the judgment by a full bench and that she faced an “ongoing struggle” in dealing with key people who were “predominantly of Indian descent who have positioned themselves as my persecutors”.
She noted that these individuals included Gordhan, “[Nazreen] Bawa [evidence leader], [Zuraya] Adhikarie [chief legal adviser of Parliament], Hassan Ebrahim (so-called expert witness), Ivan Pillay [witness] and Fatima Ebrahim [legal adviser of Parliament]. [SCA] judge [Nathan] Ponnan’s attitude further underscores the challenges and biases I have faced in my quest for justice.”
Calls to face ethics committee
The DA has, in the meantime, announced it will refer Mkhwebane to the Parliamentary Ethics Committee for violating the Code of Ethics for members.
In a statement, DA Chief Whip George Michalakis said the basis of the complaint would be Mkhwebane’s social media posts blaming individuals of Indian descent “for her failures to convince the courts of the merit of her legal action”.
“The Code of Conduct for members of the National Assembly, among others, requires members to abide by their Oath of Office to uphold the Constitution and laws of the Republic, to maintain public confidence and trust in the integrity of Parliament, and thereby engender the respect and confidence that society needs to have in Parliament as a representative institution; and in the performance of their duties and responsibilities, to be committed to the eradication of all forms of discrimination,” he said.
Furthermore, members were barred from using social media to bring Parliament into disrepute or to promote any form of hate speech. As a result the DA would be submitting an affidavit to the Registrar of Parliament, requesting the ethics committee, once constituted, to investigate this matter, to make a ruling and impose an appropriate sanction on Mkhwebane. DM