Riyaz Patel
The Public Protector has accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of “constitutionally questionable conduct” in a scathing answering affidavit filed in the Gauteng High Court Thursday.
Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s action is in response to the President’s review application in which he seeks to overturn her report into his CR17 ANC presidential campaign donations.
She said Ramaphosa’s allegations that she had acted unlawfully while compiling her report “demonstrates a lack of understanding about the Office of the Public Protector” and the president’s own oath of office.
“To simply make wild claims that correct and accurate information was unlawfully obtained is a disappointing explanation by a head of state who should demonstrate exemplary conduct and ability to take responsibility for conduct that is less than what is expected of a person occupying the office he occupies.
“No other person would be permitted to get away with the kind of obfuscation obtained in the president’s affidavits. If all are truly equal before the law, it should not be permitted by any court,” Mkhwebane stated in her filing.
Mkhwebane’s report centres on Ramaphosa’s response to a follow-up question during a sitting of the National Assembly in November 2018 from former DA leader Mmusi Maimane.
Maimane asked Ramaphosa about a R500 000 payment from the late Gavin Watson for the benefit of Ramaphosa’s son, Andile.
Ramaphosa responded the payment was above board but later corrected his oral reply in a letter to the Speaker, saying it had in fact been a donation to his CR17 campaign from Watson, and that at the time he responded to Maimane he had not been aware of the fact.
Mkhwebane found that Ramaphosa had failed to declare the benefit he accrued from Watson to Parliament and therefore had deliberately misled it.
The president, however, said Mkhwebane had made “serious errors of fact and law” in her report.
Ramaphosa previously accused Mkhwebane of illegally obtaining information about his campaign finances from the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC).
Mkhwebane rejected the claim, saying, ” the president offers no evidence whatsoever” that this happened.
