Cape Town – Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has lost her application to stop the parliamentary process to conduct an inquiry into her removal from office.
In a scathing judgment by the Western Cape High Court on Friday, it found the national legislature had a right to initiate a process to remove the public protector.
Judge Vincent Saldanha dismissed Mkhwebane’s application.
He said the public looked to the Speaker of the National Assembly to deal with matters of this nature and those affecting public bodies. .
The process undertaken by Parliament was not wrong.
Judge Saldanha said Mkhwebane had failed to make a case why Parliament should not be allowed to continue with the process to remove her.
"I am more than satisfied that the applicant (Mkhwebane) has failed to make out a case that she, let alone her office or the public as she claims, would suffer irreparable harm in the event of the proceedings resuming against her," said Judge Saldanha.
"The applicant has over and above her challenges to the alleged unlawfulness of the new rules confidently asserted the absolute lack of merit in the charges against her," he said.
"The applicant has in my view failed to meet any of the requirements for interim relief. Even if I had done so, I would have exercised my discretion in refusing such relief given the severity of the charges that had been preferred against her and which have been based on trenchant findings by none higher than the Constitutional Court with regard to her conduct, her honesty and her methodology of investigation.“
The judgment by the High Court comes after the Speaker indicated on Thursday they may proceed with the inquiry after obtaining legal opinion on the matter.
Political Bureau