Office of the Public Protector to make submissions in legal battle over Mkhwebane gratuity

JOHANNESBURG - Former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s legal battle to get her hands on an estimated R10 million gratuity returns to the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
 
While previous Public Protectors have received an end-of-service gratuity upon their exit from office, Mkhwebane’s been refused the same because she did not leave of her own volition but was instead impeached for misconduct and incompetence.
 
She is fighting the decision tooth and nail and has turned to the courts in a bid to have her ex-employer’s conduct declared unconstitutional.
 
Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s case got underway on Monday, with her counsel, advocate Dali Mpofu, making his submissions and arguing the Service Conditions for Public Protectors didn’t exclude her from receiving the gratuity but that if it did, those provisions should be voided or alternatively, that the decision not to pay her should be reviewed and set aside.
 
He also accused the Office of the Public Protector of being "hateful" and "vindictive".
 
"What do they get by singling her out from all the other Public Protectors since 1994 who have been paid their gratuities?" Mpofu asked.
 
Judge Mooki challenged Mpofu on this, though, highlighting that on the Public Protector’s Office’s version, as the first incumbent ever to be impeached, Mkhwebane was not entitled to a gratuity.
 
On Tuesday, advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, for the Office of the Public Protector, will make his submissions.