'I've never had peace as public protector', Mkhwebane tells inquiry
Suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has told the parliamentary committee looking into her fitness to hold office that she has never had peace since her appointment to head up the Chapter 9 institution.
Mkhwebane took the witness stand at the section 194 inquiry on Wednesday, accusing the DA of being the first party to call for her removal.
Mkhwebane was appointed by former president Jacob Zuma in 2016 at the end of former public protector Thuli Madonsela's term.
She accused the DA of not being happy with her appointment, which led to the party initiating a process to remove her from office.
In February 2020, the then DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone tabled a motion to initiate an inquiry in terms of section 194 of the constitution for Mkhwebane's removal.
Mkhwebane says she discovered through a media statement that there is a motion by the DA seeking her removal from office.
She then wrote to the former speaker Thandi Modise informing her about the unfairness of the process.
Responding to her senior counsel, Advocate Dali Mpofu, on why she agreed to participate in the process, Mkhwebane says she wanted "to put the matter to rest".
"I think I understood that sometimes somebody has to do this, being used as a sacrificial lamb so that this process can be tested and I have always been saying it is not for me, it is for my successors or the generation to come," said Mkhwebane.
Mkhwebane said her testimony will allow South Africans to finally hear her side of the story.
"I am very much excited that today I'll have an opportunity to address the South African public and the world at large and my colleagues in Africa.
"To engage with them and to take them through what actually transpired because it's been six-and a-half-years now being the public protector and I never had peace since I started to work as the public protector. I think the cause of all the troubles was touching the untouchable, the real cause being the Democratic Alliance.
"During my appointment, they were the only party which never supported my appointment, and they were the only party which started with the allegations of me being a spy and which to this day they failed to prove.
"They started in 2017 to initiate the process of trying to get me removed," said Mkhwebane.
Mkhwebane will continue with her testimony on Thursday.
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