President Cyril Ramaphosa will not be summoned to appear before the Section 194 committee which is looking into advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office. The committee made the decision after hearing a legal opinion on Tuesday.
Suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane had requested that Ramaphosa be summoned before the committee to answer questions about her suspension and other matters which are before the courts.
Mkhwebane’s counsel, advocate Dali Mpofu, notified the committee at the start of the impeachment proceedings that he would call Ramaphosa to testify. Mkhwebane’s attorneys subsequently wrote to the president inviting him to testify before the committee, but he declined.
Thereafter, Mkhwebane’s legal team wrote to the committee to ask that Ramaphosa be subpoenaed.
Parliament’s legal services informed the committee that Ramaphosa’s version in relation to the complaints, as well as his challenge against the Public Protector’s CR17 campaign report, have been ventilated and concluded in the courts.
The president may also have to exercise his executive duties at a later stage, and therefore careful consideration should be given when trying to draw the president into the inquiry in these preliminary stages.
A witness should be summoned if they are able to provide the committee with information that’s necessary for it to determine the veracity of the charges.
Committee chairperson Richard Dyantyi said: “We’re not going to go that route, we’re not doing it. We are not responding in an affirmative way to the Public Protector’s team and in fact, on behalf of this committee listening to this legal opinion, if there’s a letter that we must write to the Public Protector’s legal team, is that the subpoena for the president is declined. That’s the summary based on the arguments listed there on that particular legal opinion,” Dyantyi said.
The committee also decided not to recall former South African Revenue Services executives Johann van Loggenberg and Ivan Pillay as witnesses.
The hearing will resume on Wednesday, with Gumbi Tyelele, the Public Protector’s human resources manager to take the stand.
Source: News24, Eyewitness News, Daily Maverick, image from Twitter