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The Office of the Public Protector has paid over R24 million for the impeachment inquiry litigation of its suspended head Busisiwe Mkhwebane – and the justice department has confirmed it has now asked the National Treasury to pick up that cost.
The Public Protector of South Africa (PPSA) forked out close to R15 million to fund Mkhwebane’s challenge to the legality of the inquiry into her fitness to hold office, which resulted in the Constitutional Court confirming that she must be afforded the right to be heard in her defence and to be assisted by a legal practitioner or other expert of her choice.
While the ruling did not explicitly state that this legal representation should be funded by the state, acting PPSA spokesperson Ndili Msoki told News24 that the office “has paid approximately R10 million in respect of suspended Public Protector, Adv. Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s legal representation in the Section 194 committee for services rendered up to the end of September 2022”.
