Public protector: Free State director suspended for ‘disparaging letter’

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has suspended her office’s Free State director after he called on her to step down following the most scathing high court judgment on her work to date.

Mkhwebane said Hamilton Samuel was placed on precautionary suspension on Wednesday afternoon “following his writing and wide distribution of a disparaging letter which he addressed to the Public Protector on Tuesday”.

She added that he had written the letter using office resources, including his official email.

“In so doing, not only did he disrupt operations at the Public Protector and incite staff to turn against the Public Protector, he abused the employer’s facilities to pursue his personal vendetta against the Public Protector and to deal with matters that have nothing to do with his official responsibilities,” she wrote in a media statement.

‘Step down, for your own sake’

In his letter, Samuel implored Mkhwebane to step down for her own sake, that of the watchdog body, and the country as a whole.

It included a call to “admit to your flaws and your failure to lead this institution”.

Mkhwebane said the suspension was not in itself a sanction but was meant to create “an unhindered opportunity” for her to investigate Samuel’s conduct.

His letter was sent shortly after the North Gauteng High Court set aside Mkhwebane’s adverse findings against president Cyril Ramaphosa, in relation to a donation to his CR17 campaign for the leadership of the African National Congress.

Failed to demonstrate understanding of law

A full bench of the court found that Mkhwebane had exceeded her powers and failed to grasp the laws relevant to the investigation. The judges questioned her competence and warned that she risked undermining public trust in the organisation she leads.

The judgment comes as Mkhwebane is preparing for another legal battle with parliament. She is challenging its recently adopted rules governing the processes for the removal of heads of Chapter 9 institutions.  

Speaker Thandi Modise last month accepted a motion by the official opposition Democratic Alliance for the legislature to initiate removal proceedings against Mkhwebane.

The mention in the high court ruling of incompetence is likely to come into play, as this is one of the legal grounds for the recall of a Public Protector.

However, it appears that the governing ANC is not united on whether to oust her. The issue may become something of a bellwether for support of the president among MPs from his own party.

Finance minister Tito Mboweni said on Twitter that the high court ruling signalled that the time had come for Mkhwebane to fall on her sword. But he was challenged soon after by the head of the ANC Women’s League, Bathabile Dlamini, who suggested his call was misogynistic.

– African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Desiree Erasmus