Suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane must give evidence at parliament’s section 194 inquiry into her fitness to hold office, committee chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi said on Tuesday.

“The public has an interest and wants to hear from the public protector, and we are looking forward to hearing from her why she should be exonerated,” he said.

“We have dated sessions for January and the public protector must be the first witness. It can’t be that when you go to a DC [disciplinary committee] process, you get to decide when you come.

“We want to ensure we don’t delay any longer. There can be witnesses after her, but we need to get to that point.”

Dyantyi made the remarks after summarising the impeachment committee’s decision not to accede to an application by Mkhwebane’s legal team that evidence leaders Nazreen Bawa and Ncumisa Mayosi be removed.

In response to the January decree, her advocate, Dali Mpofu, said: “I have news for you. We will call our witnesses in the sequence we choose to.

“What next? Are you going to start telling us what to wear or what questions to ask? You must prepare yourself for some serious resistance on that front.”

Regarding Bawa and Mayosi, Mpofu argued on Monday that their continued presence would tarnish proceedings. He said the public protector was not receiving a fair hearing, arguing that the flighting of lawyers' names and the fees they earned during Mkhwebane’s tenure from 2016 to 2022 was “racist, malicious, improper and unprofessional”.

Advocate Vuyani Ngalwana, whose name was on the list, had laid a complaint with the Legal Practice Council against evidence leader Bawa, Mpofu said.

During Monday's deliberations, only the EFF sided with him, with the UDM's Bantu Holomisa not committing and instead advising Mpofu to pursue the issue in another forum.

Dyantyi said: “[Of] all the members who spoke — 10 out of 12 — there was unanimity on the issue that this application [not meeting any threshold] bears no relevance to the work we are doing and there is no way we can accede to it. 

“It must be dismissed and rejected. Members feel it's more of stalling the process ... that it’s delaying tactics and taking us away from our mandate. So we need to come back and focus on the work we have to do.”

Several committee members pointed out that this was the sixth application brought by Mhkwebane’s legal team since the inception of the inquiry earlier this year.

Parliamentary legal adviser Fatima Ebrahim cautioned that should the committee decide to remove the evidence leaders, the hearing might have to start from scratch because all the evidence presented so far would be “tainted”.

This would make it impossible for the committee to fulfil its constitutional mandate and make findings either way before Mkhwebane’s term of office ends in October 2023.

She said the gist of the allegations regarding the flighting of lawyers names and legal fees involved “aggrieved third parties”, not the public protector.

MP Dr Mimmy Gondwe said: “These applications are in essence repeated attempts to stall and delay the committee from concluding its work before October next year. We have to tell it like it is and this won’t be the last time. There have been six attempts to stall the work of this committee. It's very concerning.

“If anybody is misconducting himself, it's advocate Mpofu,” she said, asking for feedback on a promised investigation into threats he made to the chairperson.

“And yesterday he defied your instruction to keep quiet to allow you to take control of this meeting,” she said.

The EFF’s Omphile Maotwe said: “We support the removal,” before attacking “Miss Fatima”, saying she was behaving like a politician.

She also demanded to know what Bawa was earning per day. “Is it a dirty secret?” she asked, prompting a rebuke from Dyantyi that Maotwe stop attacking members of the team. 

The inquiry continues.

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