PARLIAMENT - Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is potentially on a collision course with President Cyril Ramaphosa after announcing that the finance ministry would be taking the Public Protector's recommendation that the Treasury director general be disciplined on review.
In a media briefing just ahead of his budget speech on Wednesday, Mboweni took a swipe at Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane who had found that DG Dondo Mogajane had failed to disclose his criminal record, that stemmed from a speeding fine in 2011, in his application forms to become director general.
"I think the Public Protector has a problem. I'm saying this as strongly as I can, knowing full well the office of the public protector is a constitutional structure, but the incumbent has a problem and I hope one day I can have a discussion with the incumbent, without interfering, just to advise," said Mboweni.
The minister said Mogajane had his "full confidence".
"She has made a finding that speedy Dondo must be disciplined. I guess if I could take an opinion poll here, most of you have speeding fines," Mboweni told journalists.
"The collective view of the ministry of finance is that the findings of the Public Protector are wrong, so I am taking the decision on review and legal counsel have already drafted the affidavit."
Mboweni's comments clash with that of the Presidency, who in a media release said President Cyril Ramaphosa had decided to institute disciplinary steps against Mogajane and that the power to do so had been delegated to Higher Education Minister Naledi Pandor.
The Finance Minister would then have the authority to implement the outcome of a disciplinary hearing.