Parliament’s legal adviser says Mkhwebane team’s withdrawal is the ‘oldest trick in the book’
Cape Town - Thursday’s dramatic dramatic abandonment of suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane staged by advocate Dali Mpofu during Parliament’s Committee for Section 194 Inquiry into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office has been described as “the oldest trick in the book.”
Mpofu’s action followed the committee’s declining of Mkhwebane’s application to adjourn its work pending yet another high court challenge she intends to file today.
Speaking about the inquiry on Friday, Parliament’s legal advisor Fatima Ebrahim told the committee of a comparable situation confronted by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
She said in that matter the SCA found it was “one of the oldest tricks in the book”, when a party gets into legal difficulty, for the legal team to withdraw.
The SCA said that this was done so as to engineer a postponement as the party would then not have legal representation, thereby in this way seeking to force the very postponement that had been refused.
Mkwhebane asked the committee for a 10-day adjournment to consult her legal team.
She said she had not terminated their mandate nor had she restricted their mandate to only being limited to the adjournment application.
Ebrahim suggested a request for a postponement be granted until close of business today.
By this time Mkhwebane must provide an update on the outcome of her consultation with Seanego Attorneys before resuming with the hearing of evidence on Tuesday.
Committee member Bekizwe Nkosi (ANC) said the walkout was “staged and deliberate”.
However, EFF MP Omphile Maotwe said the committee was being unreasonable to Mkhwebane.
Committee member Corne Mulder (Freedom Front Plus) said he had been right when he warned very early on in the enquiry that it appeared Mkhwebane and her lawyers were trying their best to delay proceedings.
Annalie Lotriet (DA) said if any postponement was granted, she says, it should be for a very short time, however ATM MP Vuyo Zungula said the committee needed time to reflect and that Ebrahim’s advice was one-sided.
Eventually the committee gave Mkhwebane three days, instead of 10, to prepare for her legal presentations and chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi ruled that the hearings would resume on Tuesday.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za