South African President, Former Ombud Lawfare Reaches New High

The Western Cape High Court has ruled that President Cyril Ramaphosa's suspension of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane should be set aside as the decision may have been tainted by bias. Shortly after the ruling, Mkhwebane sought access to the offices of the Public Protector in Pretoria. This, however, was denied by acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka.

In the meantime, the president also filed papers opposing Mkhwebane's application seeking direct access to appeal to the Constitutional Court. The president, who is being investigated by the PP's office for the possible breach of the ethics code related to a break-in and theft of foreign currency from his private game reserve at Phala Phala, filed papers on Sunday September 11, 2022 - opposing Mkhwebane's application.

Meanwhile, Mkhwebane's legal representative, Advocate Dali Mpofu, has sought to suspend or at least halt Mkhwebane's Section 194 impeachment inquiry - an ad-hoc committee of the national assembly established on April 7, 2021 to determine if there are grounds for the removal of Mkhwebane as Public Protector. "We are not in a position to proceed," he informed the committee, adding "we are going to be doing an application for a postponement".

Members of parliament called for an investigation into Mpofu's threats to parliamentary committee chairperson Richard Dyantyi, for not allowing a postponement of Mkwebane's hearings. Mpofu threatened Dyantyi, saying "you will pay one day", after he refused to postpone the hearings by a week.