South Africa’s former public protector Thuli Madonsela appeared before the parliamentary inquiry to speak about her successor Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office. It was not her will to be there. In fact, she had reportedly initially declined to attend but was subpoenaed and had to appear.
Busisiwe Mkhwebane was subpoenaed by parliament on behalf of Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who had added the former prosecutor as those to give evidence about her fitness for office.
Before the committee, she had explained that she didn’t mean to be disrespectful but that she felt what was expected of her had already been addressed by the courts and that appearing and speaking before the committee again would amount to rehashing what had already been addressed.
The former public prosecutor was to have addressed the committee last week, but the committee decided to accept her written statement as her evidence but changed its mind about 24 hours later, mandating her to appear before it.
This did not exactly go down well with advocate Dali Mpofu, Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s attorney, who accused the committee of “hijacking” the former public prosecutor and making her its witness.
Madonsela herself claims that Mkhwebane’s lawyers are already accusing her of certain things and making it seem like the inquiry is about her conduct.
