Durban - Democracy In Action, who have pledged to raise up to R900 000 for Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s legal funds, says that they have now accumulated over R90 000 and aim to reach the R900 000 figure in three months time.
Last month the civil society organisation launched the campaign to pay Mkhwebane’s legal fees after the Constitutional Court ruled that Mkhwebane had lied under oath and acted in bad faith in the case of the South African Reserve Bank R1.125 billion bailout of Absa.
The ConCourt ruled that the Public Protector pay 15 percent of the punitive costs rendering her in debt of close to R1 million.
On Monday the organisation’s Twitter account posted that their fundraising was sitting on R87 900 and the figure today, confirmed by Democracy In Action chairperson Thabo Mtsweni, was now in the region of R90 000.
Mtsweni said that they had not been in contact with the Public Protector in relation to their fundraising and that this campaign was a community initiative and they would not hand the money over to Mkhwebane but into a bank account for her legal fees.
“We are very confident of reaching the R900 000 mark, and we are receiving deposits of around R100, R200, R250 and the highest that we have received is R4000 and it shows that it’s ordinary South Africans who are donating this money.
“So we are confident that in three months time we would have reached our goal that we have set for ourselves. At the moment we don’t have any doubts that we will reach it,” Mtsweni said.