Mkhwebane inquiry draining public protector office’s budget: Gcaleka

Acting public protector Kholeka Gcaleka says parliament’s section 194 inquiry into Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office is draining the chapter 9 institution’s resources.

Gcaleka told parliament’s justice portfolio committee on Wednesday that if the office did not get additional funds for the inquiry, it risked not being a concern.

The office of the public protector (PPSA) is required to fund the costs of Mkhwebane’s legal defence in her impeachment inquiry. It also pays for her travel, accommodation and security while attending the inquiry in Cape Town, which Gcaleka said was “really hitting into the pockets of the PPSA”.

She said the costs were unforeseen and were neither budgeted for nor formed part of the baseline allocation.

Her office was verifying invoices for the period July to September 2022 in the amount of R6.4m.

“We have an outstanding invoice which we are of course vigorously interrogating because of aspects that have come out in the public and some we have experienced as the public protector. As it is, we can confirm there has been some over-billing into the invoice which we have communicated to the legal representatives,” she said.

Gcaleka said for this financial year, they received a commitment on Tuesday that the justice department would assist them with R9m, but considering the pressures the section 194 committee had added to the budget, that was really a drop in the ocean.

She acknowledged that Mkhwebane’s legal counsel was also complaining about being unpaid, but the PPSA was not in a position to meet the full commitments of her legal representation. Dali Mpofu SC complained to the inquiry last week about not being paid.

“None of us had foreseen that it would get to this extent and would become such an expense,” said Gcaleka.

The public protector estimated the cost of the inquiry would reach between R12m to R15m by the end of March.

“As things are going, it seems like it will go beyond this financial year, which will be of serious detriment to the office of the public protector, considering there is no separate budget for the section 194 inquiry, it comes from the budget of the operations of the institution.”

Gcaleka also told MPs the psychosocial impact of the issues that came up in the section 194 inquiry had had a negative impact on the PPSA, and rebranding the office would cost much more.

“On the issue of reputational damage. It’s costing us a bit more, which means we need to increase on our stakeholder relations on the public participation — basically on the rebranding of PPSA ...”

Committee chairperson Bulelani Magwanishe said the committee would seek a meeting with National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, finance minister Enoch Godongwana and justice minister Ronald Lamola to find ways to discuss funding for the institution.