Cape Town - Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s lawyer, advocate Dali Mpofu SC, insist that he will call President Cyril Ramaphosa to testify at Parliament’s Committee for Section 194 Enquiry hearings on accusations he was alleged to have made about her being guilty of perjury.
Mpofu made a point of informing the committee that his team would write to Ramaphosa to come voluntarily and if the answer was no, he would initiate a process to summons him.
Mpofu said he wanted Ramaphosa to testify because of accusations of perjury that he had made against Mkhwebane and which would be impeachable if they were found to be true.
He said that he had mentioned his intention to call the president as a witness with regard to the issues of the charges to do with Bosasa and CR17 to the inquiry’s evidence leader, advocate Nazreen Bawa SC, on Sunday.
He said Bawa’s response was: “Well you have to do what you have to do.”
On Wednesday, the Presidency rejected a suggestion by committee member Bantu Holomisa (UDM) on Tuesday that Ramaphosa should testify about Mkhwebane’s controversial CR17 report.
Mpofu also said that he would call an unnamed former president, who was said to have met with Mkhwebane, to testify at the hearings.
“I don’t want to name names at this stage, but you’ll remember one of the charges has to do with a meeting with a president.”
Mpofu got into trouble with MPs when he suggested that they should brace themselves for an extensive inquiry process as he would address every single accusation made by witnesses against Mkhwebane.
Freedom Front Plus MP Corné Mulder said he feared that there was a strategy to keep the committee going until Mkhwebane’s term as public protector expired.
Her term ends in October next year. This sparked a debate that took up most of the morning session where MPs and Mpofu debated the powers of the committee to summon witnesses.
When Mpofu eventually began his cross examination of former SA Revenue Service (Sars) executive turned whistle-blower Johann van Loggerenberg, they crossed swords over Mpofu’s description of the High Risk Investigations Unit that Van Loggerenberg headed at Sars as “the rogue unit.”
Van Loggerenberg said he found it an offensive term and that he had struggled for years to correct people who said it.
The committee adjourned at 3pm. The hearings will continue today with Mpofu’s continuing cross-examination of Van Loggerenberg.
Former deputy Sars commissioner Ivan Pillay, against whom Mkhwebane also lost a case, is expected to testify after Van Loggerenberg leaves the stand.