Suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane suffered yet another legal blow as the High Court in Pretoria set aside portions of her third report, in which former SARS deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay is implicated.
The court found that Mkhwebane had failed to give notice to Pillay of the investigation, that he had not been granted the right to be heard on the remedial action and that none of the rights to which Pillay had been entitled to in terms of section 7(9) of the public protector Act (23 of 1994) were afforded to him. As a result, his constitutional rights had been breached.
It declared that the remedial action against Pillay was unlawful and was ordered to be set aside. Pillay testified before Mkhwebane’s impeachment inquiry in Parliament on Friday.
Mkhwebane’s failure to apply audi partem (the right to reply) in several investigations and reports by her office emerged as a modus aperandi during her term in office.
Parliament’s impeachment inquiry considered three reports in which Mkhwebane made adverse findings against Pillay. He told the committee that Mkhwebane ignored him when she was conducting an investigation into the illegal appointment of a software service provider- Budge, Barone, and Dominick Pty Ltd at SARS.
In two reports (No.24 of 2019/20 and No.36 of 2019/20) which were also set aside by the courts, Mkhwebane made adverse findings against Pillay with regards to his early retirement at SARS and his pension benefits, his appointment as former SARS Deputy Commissioner, and also implicated him in the SARS “rogue” unit.
On Monday the court hit the Public Protector’s office with costs in this latest ruling.
Source: News24, Eyewitness News, Daily Maverick, image from Twitter