Cape Town - Issues of intellectual superiority and intimidation caused drama when they came up at on Thursday’s Committee for Section 194 Inquiry hearings into suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
The public protector’s recently reinstated Free State head, Sphelo Samuel, who was being cross-examined by Mkhwebane’s lawyer Dali Mpofu SC, was accused of undermining Mkhwebane because he felt intellectually superior to her.
Mpofu took issue with Samuel after he said he did not think Mkhwebane was intellectually suited to her role.
Samuel had questioned Mkhwebane’s conduct during meetings. He said she displayed a lack of information and that her ability to lead discussions and take decisions on the arguments that were made during meetings was lacking.
Mpofu was cross-examining Samuel on the testimony he gave on Wednesday about how Mkhwebane had restructured a think tank that had existed during her predecessor advocate Thuli Madonsela’s time, and on which Samuel had served.
Things got heated in the exchange between Mpofu and Samuel, forcing committee chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi to interject and caution Mpofu against going too far.
Speaking to Samuel, Mpofu said: “The mere fact that you think you might be intellectually superior to advocate Mkhwebane doesn’t entitle you to deny her the right to restructure the organisation, does it?”
Mpofu withdrew the remark but shortly afterwards Samuel said he felt the differences between him and Mkhwebane stemmed from the fact that she had not practised law, while he had.
Mpofu asked Samuel if he thought Mkhwebane had been intimidated by him and Samuel said: “I certainly think I can handle some things better than she does.”
Earlier, Mpofu had concentrated on poking holes in Samuel’s evidence about attempts allegedly made by Mkhwebane, when she was new to the role, of trying to ensure that no adverse findings against politicians were contained in the report on the controversial Gupta-linked Vrede Dairy Farm project in the Free State.
Samuel had testified that these findings included determinations against former Free State Premier Ace Magashule and the former Free State Agriculture MEC Mosebenzi Zwane.
Samuel told the committee that in the report, which he wrote in defiance of Mkhwebane’s instructions, he said both Magashule and Zwane were implicated in the transactions and he had concluded that they were culpable and should be held liable because they had overall responsibility.
He emphasised that he felt very strongly that there should be findings against them. Samuel will continue to testify today.
Before the hearings began, Dyantyi said he had received the written answers to questions directed at Mkhwebane by the committee last week.
It emerged that Mkhwebane had wanted her answers to be treated as confidential until the question of her objection to the inquiry was sorted out. However, the committee found there was no legal basis to keep the answers confidential.