https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

ConCourt upholds cost order against Mkhwebane, rules she was not honest in Absa investigation

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane

Photo by Reuters

22nd July 2019

By: News24Wire

  

Font size: - +

This article has been supplied.

The Constitutional Court on Monday upheld the personal costs order against Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

The court agreed with the North Gauteng High Court that her entire Absa/Bankorp investigation was flawed, and that Mkhwebane was not honest during her investigation. 

The apex court dismissed the South African Reserve Bank's application for a declaratory order to find that Mkhwebane has abused her office while she undertook the investigation.

The public protector, in a report published on June 19 2017, had tasked the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) with recovering R1.125-billion in "misappropriated public funds", describing the funds as an "illegal gift" given to Bankorp by the South African Reserve Bank in the 1980s. As Bankorp and other banks were later subsumed into Absa, Mkhwebane ruled that the funds be recovered from Absa.

Following the publication of her report, the central bank, the minister of finance, Absa and Treasury instituted review applications set aside her directive that the SIU recover funds from Absa. These applications were later consolidated. 

The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria set aside Mkhwebane's findings in February 2018, citing a "reasonable apprehension of bias" in her work. Mkhwebane was also ordered to personally repay 15% of the South African Reserve Bank’s legal costs, while the office of the Public Protector was ordered to pay the remaining 85%. 

Mkhwebane's applications for leave to appeal the judgment in the High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal were refused.   

The public protector then sought leave to appeal the section of the ruling relating to her personal liability for the legal costs in the Constitutional Court. The case was heard in November 2018.

Click here to download the judgment

Edited by News24Wire

Article Enquiry

Email Article

Save Article

Feedback

To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Showroom

Schauenburg SmartMine IoT
Schauenburg SmartMine IoT

SmartMine IoT has been developed with the mining industry in mind, to provides our customers with powerful business intelligence and data modelling...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
Rentech
Rentech

Rentech provides renewable energy products and services to the local and selected African markets. Supplying inverters, lithium and lead-acid...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







301

sq:0.048 0.867s - 146pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now