Mkhwebane liable for legal costs in Absa payout matter
Updated | By ECR Newswatch
The Constitutional Court has ruled that the Public Protector should be held personally liable for a portion of the legal costs in a matter involving the SA Reserve Bank.
The Constitutional Court has has handed down a damning judgement against the Public Protector in the matter involving the SA Reserve Bank.
It has upheld a high court order, that Busisiwe Mkhwebane should be held personally liable for a portion of the legal costs.
Two years ago - Mkhwebane found that the Reserve Bank and government had failed to recover a R1,1-billion loan that was given to Absa's predecessor Bankorp in an apartheid-era bailout.
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Her findings were set aside after the Reserve Bank, the Finance Minister and others took her report on review.
Judge Sisi Khampepe earlier gave reasons why Mkhwebane's appeal against the high court's cost order has been dismissed.
"The Public Protector put forward a number of falsehoods in the cause of litigation - including misrepresenting under oath before the high court that the economic analysis that underpinned the final report was based on expert economic advice whereas this was false as the report was not based on expert economic advice. In this court, the Public Protector's various explanations of her conduct was contradictory," Khampepe said.
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Khampepe also says Mkhwebane didn't make some important records immediately available.
"This court holds that the Public Protector failed to explain why she did not disclose any of her meetings with the Presidency in the final report or why contrary to her general practice of producing transcripts of all meetings conducted during an investigation - she did not produce the transcription of her meetings with the Presidency or the State Security Agency."
"We also find that the Public Protector omitted pertinent documents from the record. Some of which were only put up for the first time as annexes to her answering affidavit in the high court and others which were disclosed for the first time in this court," Khampepe explained.
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