Cape Town - Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane refused to authorise subpoenas to former Free State premier Ace Magashule and former Agriculture MEC Mosebenzi Zwane during the investigation into the Vrede Dairy farm project.
This was the claim made on Wednesday by Office of the Public Protector’s Free State representative Sphelo Samuel, who said Mkhwebane did not want findings to be made against implicated politicians.
Samuel made the claim while testifying during the parliamentary inquiry into the fitness of Mkhwebane to hold public office, saying Zwane and Magashule were not cooperating with the investigation.
He told the inquiry that Mkhwebane had required a draft report in preparation for a visit to Vrede, which was to take place in April 2017.
Samuel said subpoenas could only be issued to politicians by Mkhwebane but he had delegated powers to subpoena only officials.
“I requested the Public Protector for permission to issue subpoenas because they were not cooperating with us. They were not responding to our advances, meetings or providing information,” he said.
Samuel said it was on the day of inspection when he was taken around the dairy farm that he made his request to Mkhwebane.
“Her response was that she does not want any findings against politicians. She declined my request to prepare subpoenas for her signature,” he said.
“I accepted her directive at the time and knew I could not take the matter any further. I had to rely on what was available to me,” Samuel said, adding he prepared the draft report and made findings against Magashule and Zwane.
The investigation was sparked by a complaint from DA MPL Roy Jankielsohn following an investigation by the National Treasury, which found procurement irregularities and recommended disciplinary action against officials.
When former public protector Thuli Madonsela started the investigation, she issued an unsigned provisional report in November 2014.
However, Mkhwebane released the report in February 2018, but it was taken on judicial review by the DA and Casac, and set aside in May 2019.
The judgement found that Mkhwebane failed in her duties under the Public Protector Act and the Constitution.
The report now forms part of charges that Mkhwebane misconducted herself during the investigation of the Vrede Dairy farm project and altered remedial action proposed by her predecessor.
During the testimony led by evidence leader Advocate Nazreen Bawa, Samuel said Madonsela had not completed the investigation when she left office.
“The draft report was referred for further investigation because Advocate Madonsela was not happy with the fact that it was not wide enough to include the role of politicians in the matter.”
He told the inquiry of an instance when Mkhwebane, upon assuming office after 2016, asked for a draft in February 2017.
In around March 2017, Magashule allegedly made a request for a meeting with Mkhwebane when she was in the Free State for a stakeholder engagement session.
Samuel recalled informing Mkhwebane of Magashule’s request and that she initially refused to meet him, saying she did not take instructions from the former premier
“A few minutes later she received a call. I don’t know who called. She walked to the one end of the room and on her return she said she had changed her mind and would go ahead and meet the premier and introduce me...”
Samuel said Mkhwebane and Magashule met the following morning at the office of the premier in a meeting that “must have lasted 15 to 20 minutes”.
He said he did not know what the conversation between the pair was about.
“Some time later she said she made some undertakings to release the report and started to follow up on the Vrede Dairy matter,” he said.
According to Samuel, Mkhwebane had made an undertaking to release the report and that it would be ready by the end of April 2017.
“I assumed this undertaking might have been made during her meeting with the premier,” he said.
Samuel will on Thursday face cross-examination by Mkhwebane’s legal counsel, Advocate Dali Mpofu.
Cape Times