The PP’s office rubbishes comparisons of Mkhwebane to freedom fighter Robert Sobukwe

JOHANNESBURG - The Public Protector’s office has rubbished comparisons of Busisiwe Mkhwebane to legendary freedom fighter Robert Sobukwe.

Mkhwebane is challenging her former employer’s refusal to pay her out a R10 million gratuity in court after she was impeached for misconduct and incompetence.

On Tuesday, her counsel at the High Court in Pretoria Advocate Dali Mpofu, has labelled the decision biased and malicious - insisting all Mkhwebane’s predecessors received the gratuity.

Mpofu has gone as far as likening Mkhwebane to Sobukwe in her plight.

In his submissions , Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi for the Public Protector’s Office slammed the comparison between Robert Sobukwe and Busisiwe Mkhwebane detailing, at length, all the findings made against her.

"So we can ask the question then: 'Which other public protector in the history of the Office of the Public Protector has ever had these findings made against them? And it is Advocate Mkhwebane'."

He says against this backdrop, the Office of the Public Protector’s position that she’s not entitled to the gratuity is not biased, malicious or unfairly discriminatory - but that it’s simply true.

Ngcukaitobi highlights Mkhwebane’s impeachment marked the first time the process for removing a Public Protector was ever instituted and the president ever removed one.

"So again, Advocate Mkhwebane is not Robert Sobukwe. She is not getting the gratuity because the instrument does not permit the payment to a person removed."

Ngcukaitobi has wrapped up his submissions and the case is continuing.