The perjury case against suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane was on Wednesday postponed to 9 December for a decision from the high court on the review application of the remaining two charges in the perjury matter.
On Wednesday morning Mkhwebane appeared briefly in the Pretoria magistrate’s court on charges of perjury which emanate from allegations that she deliberately lied under oath about her meetings with former president Jacob Zuma.
The charges related to the Constitutional Court judgement in 2019 that found she had acted in bad faith and putting forward a “number of falsehoods” in the Absa/Bankorp review case.
Mkhwebane released the Bankorp-CIEX report in June 2017. Her findings directed Absa, which took over Bankorp in 1992, to repay R1.125 billion for a lifeboat provided by the SARB during the apartheid era. She called the bailout “an illegal gift”. The SARB and Absa had asked the court to review the report and set it aside.
The Constitutional Court ruled that Mkhwebane’s “entire model of the investigation was flawed”. The majority judgement found amongst others that Mkhwebane failed to explain why she did not disclose any of her meetings with former president Jacob Zuma in her 2017 report.
The suspended public protector, on Wednesday, through her lawyers told the court that they had filed an application with the high court to review the decision of the national director of public prosecutions.
“My legal team has explained to the magistrate we have filed a review application with the high court to review the decision of the national director of public prosecutions head, advocate Shamila Batohi, because there were three charges originally and one charge has been withdrawn because there was confusion about whether I met the president or the presidency,” Mkhwebane said outside the court.
“We made representations, and they were accepted but there are two charges remaining that she refused to withdraw and we are taking that matter to court for a review.”
Mkhwebane said she hopes they will be provided with an early date so that the matter can be quickly resolved. The matter has been postponed to 9 December.
Source: The Citizen, Sowetan Live, News24, Business Day, image from The Citizen: Nelly McCartney