Public Protector's office faces costly court order, highlighting internal turmoil and ongoing legal battles.
Public Protector's office faces costly court order, highlighting internal turmoil and ongoing legal battles.It is ironic that the office of the public protector – which accused the axed Busisiwe Mkhwebane of running up huge legal bills in various cases – has now itself been smacked with a punitive costs order by a high court judge, sucking up more taxpayer money.
Judge Colleen Collis ruled yesterday the office should itself stick to the rules and not delay the court proceedings in which Mkhwebane is claiming she should be paid a R10 million gratuity due to her on leaving office.That substantial issue has still to be dealt with by the court… but it’s not a good look for the current public protector, Kholeka Gcaleka, to be exuding an air of malice against Mkhwebane.
Collis ordered Gcaleka to produce the documents upon which the decision to deny Mkhwebane the gratuity was based. One would have thought that these would have been at the very heart of the PP’s defence to Mkhwebane’s claims – so why they were not produced at the start is troubling.The battle over the gratuity, however, should not excuse Mkhwebane’s conduct in a string of court cases – for which she was upbraided by judicial officers on numerous occasions for incompetence or ignorance of the law.
She argued that Mkhwebane’s removal from office due to misconduct and incompetence disqualified her from claiming the gratuity.‘I’ll never allow this nonsense’ − Gayton McKenzie on councillor allegedly ‘trying to stop EFF Town Hall rally’
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