South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended the Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane.
According to a statement from the presidency, the suspension was in accordance with section 194 (3)(a) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
That section of the constitution empowers the president to suspend the Public Protector (or any member of a Chapter 9 institution) “at any time after the start of proceedings by a committee of the National Assembly for [their] removal”.
The decision to suspend the Public Protector has elicited great outcry among some South Africans, who think it is nothing more than an attempt to bury the advocate over her decision to probe the President.
President Ramaphosa had suspended Busisiwe Mkhwebane precisely one day after she announced that she would be probing #CouchGate, a hashtag coined to reference the heist at President Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in 2020, in which millions of dollars were reportedly stolen from the property. The president failed to report it until former police chief Arthur Fraser exposed it.
Although she might ultimately lose her job, Busisiwe Mkhwebane is unbothered. According to her, the battle is the Lord’s. She made that assertion in a recent tweet, which you can check out below.
