Unprecedented - South Africa's Impeached Public Protector Removed

President Cyril Ramaphosa has formally fired advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, a month before her term as Public Protector was due to end, News24 reports. On Monday September 11, 2023, 79.5% of the National Assembly voted in support of the section 194 committee that found Mkhwebane incompetent and guilty of misconduct, and unfit to hold office as head of South Africa's watchdog.

In a letter to Mkhwebane, Ramaphosa said the Constitution states that following the conclusion of the section 194 process, he "must" remove the Public Protector from office.

Mkhwebane's impeachment is a first for democratic South Africa, and unprecedented for the head of a Chapter Nine institution which was created to protect constitutional rights.

Numerous court judgments questioned Mkhwebane's competence and grasp of the law, required by a figure as important as the public protector. Some of the charges against her were that she wasted money in fruitless and unsuccessful attempts to defend her reports after they were overturned by the courts. Mkhwebane spent an estimated U.S.$7.7 million on legal fees and over U.S.$1.5 million defending herself at the Section 194 hearings.

The unprecedented parliamentary vote also saw Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma face criticism over being the one abstention in the vote.

African National Congress (ANC) chief whip Pemmy Majodina said she would write a report to the party's secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and request that action be taken. This was after she instructed ANC MPs to toe the party line on Mkhwebane's removal.