Public Protector has ulterior motives for investigating me, says Ramaphosa Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane

President Cyril Ramaphosa has reportedly questioned Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s political motives for investigating him for money laundering in relation to donations for his ANC presidential campaign.

According to Business Day, Ramaphosa believes Mkhwebane was motivated by an “ulterior purpose” in her inclusion of details of his ANC election bank accounts. These were reportedly irrelevant to her investigation into whether he misled Parliament about a R500 000 donation from facilities firm, Bosasa.

Mkhwebane found Ramaphosa had violated the executive code of ethics by not declaring donations to his presidential campaign in 2017, News24 reported.

She also found the statesman had deliberately misled Parliament when he responded to a question in the National Assembly about the R500 000 donation from former Bosasa boss, Gavin Watson.

Ramaphosa has since decided to take Mkhwebane’s report, which found he had violated the executive code of ethics, on urgent judicial review. He said the report contained “numerous factual inaccuracies of a material nature” and was “fundamentally flawed”.

Ramaphosa is not the first to question Mkhwebane’s competence.

Fin24 previously reported that calls have intensified for Mkhwebane to be fired and that the DA was seeking to revive a parliamentary process to remove her from office.

Cope called for Mkhwebane’s head, describing her as “incompetent”.

Trade union federation Cosatu said Ramaphosa should set aside all Mkhwebane’s reports until her competency and trustworthiness have been ascertained. The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) also called for the Public Protector’s reports to be set aside until her fitness to hold office has been reviewed.

According to Business Day’s report, Ramaphosa accuses Mkhwebane of accessing “stolen”, private and confidential emails linked to the campaign. Sapa

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