Cape Town - Parliament’s inquiry into suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office resumes today with the testimony of former PPSA chief operating officer Basani Baloyi who fought her dismissal by Mkhwebane in the courts.
Baloyi launched an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court on the basis that the termination of her employment was unlawful and that Mkhwebane had not complied with her constitutional obligations, but the high court ruled the case was “essentially a labour matter”.
Baloyi then turned to the Constitutional Court which gave her leave to appeal against the high court decision and for the case to be heard anew.
On Thursday the hearings adjourned abruptly after a technical hitch forced former PPSA executive manager Lufuno Ndou off the virtual platform.
The committee will now try to set another date, possibly tomorrow, with Ndou, who was being cross-examined by Mkhwebane’s lawyer, advocate Dali Mpofu SC, when weather conditions in East London, from where he was testifying, caused him to lose signal a number of times.
Committee chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi asked evidence leader advocate Nazreen Bawa SC to arrange with Ndou when he could return to the hearings – in person if possible.
Bawa said she would try to arrange for Ndou to return tomorrow, at which point Mpofu could complete his cross-examination and MPs would be able to put any questions they had to him.
During his testimony – which was mainly about the Vrede Dairy report – Ndou, who was the inquiry’s 11th witness, said Mkhwebane had indicated that she “would be happy” if the Vrede Dairy investigation report did not contain any adverse findings.
Ndou had previously been mentioned in the testimony of lead investigator into the Vrede Dairy project, and third witness, Tebogo Kekana, who told the committee Ndou told him not to make any findings against any politicians.
On that occasion Mpofu told the committee Mkhwebane would deny she instructed investigators in her office not to rely on the Gupta leaks when they were investigating the Vrede Dairy project.
“The only thing she did was to caution about the authenticity of some of that information,” Mpofu said.
On Thursday, Ndou testified that in September or October 2017 he received a phone call from Mkhwebane in which she raised concerns with the Vrede Dairy investigation.
In their conversation Mkhwebane said the lead investigator in the matter, advocate Erika Cilliers was doing the DA’s bidding and it was clear she worked for the DA.
Ndou said this conversation happened on the same day the Vrede Dairy file was transferred to the head office and no discussion regarding the evidence had yet taken place.