Mkhwebane facing deadline to provide reasons why she should not repay over R5m to PP's Office

CAPE TOWN - Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Busisiwe Mkhwebane has until the end of Tuesday to provide reasons to her former employer why she should not have to repay over R5 million to the Public Protector's Office. 
 
Mkhwebane and her successor are currently engaged in a tit-for-tat spat over an estimated R10 million end-of-service gratuity she says is due to her. 
 
But in a separate matter, the Public Protector's Office says Mkhwebane owes it for wasteful and fruitless expenditure on accommodation, legal fees and security costs during her seven-year tenure.  
 
After being flagged as irregular payments by the Auditor-General, the Public Protector's Office now wants Mkhwebane to repay money spent on her accommodation in the ministerial estate of Bryntirion. 
 
It also wants her to pay back litigation expenses incurred in personal defamation and perjury matters. 
 
Last week, the Public Protector's Office was slapped with a costs order by the Pretoria High Court after it delayed Mkhwebane's urgent application by not filing the necessary documents in the gratuity matter on time. 
 
The office has told Eyewitness News it expects Mkhwebane to provide it with substantive reasons by Tuesday as to why she should not be held liable for the financial losses set out in a letter to her last month. 
 
The office says further steps will be determined once it receives Mkhwebane’s responses. 
 
The office is refusing to pay Mkhwebane a R10 million gratuity in light of having been impeached just weeks before completing her term. 
 
The matter has now been referred to the deputy judge president of the court to determine the next steps after being removed from the court's urgent roll.