Judgement has been reserved in suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s court application for leave to appeal decision that prevented her from going back to office.
Mkhwebane’s leave to appeal application supported by the United Democratic Movement (UDM), African Transformation Movement (ATM) and Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), was heard by the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.
On 9 September, the Western Cape High Court ruled President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to suspend Mkhwebane, a day after she announced her office would investigate him in terms of the Executive Members Ethics Act complaint over the 2020break-in at his Phala Phala farm, and a day before the court ruled on Mkhwebane’s attempt to interdict such a move, was improper.
The court said: “In our view the hurried nature of suspension of Mkhwebane in the circumstances, notwithstanding that a judgement of the full court was looming on the same subject matter subject matter, leads this court to an ineluctable conclusion that the suspension may have been retaliatory and, hence, unlawful.”
After the ruling, the Democratic Alliance (DA) launched an urgent application to appeal the ruling to the Constitutional Court, thereby immediately suspending the judgement. Mkhwebane brought an application to immediately enforce the ruling, which both the DA and Ramaphosa opposed.
The courts full bench on 11 October dismissed Mkhwebane’s bid to be immediately reinstated to her position and ruled that its order on her suspension was subject for confirmation by the Constitutional Court.
During Tuesday’s court proceedings, Advocate Dali Mpofu SC, argued that there is a “reasonable probability” that another court would reach to different conclusion regarding her suspension.
With the confirmation hearing set to take place in the ConCourt in November, Mpofu said it was “wrong on so many fundamental levels” that the high court would not be able to grant the leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) as argued by the DA in their papers.
The DA is seeking the same court order, arguing that Mkhwebane’s application has no merit.
The judgement in the matter has since been reserved.
Source: News24, The Citizen, Times Live, IOL, image from Twitter: @insightfactor