The Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane on Monday endured a scathing assessment of her report on the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) at the Constitutional Court, which found that she had lied and used false documents to advance her cause.
Mkhwebane had appealed the high court order that she should, in her personal capacity, pay 15% of the costs of the SARB on an attorney and client scale, including the cost of three counsel.
In a report released last year, Mkwebane had recommended that Parliament amend the Constitution in order to strip the Reserve Bank of its primary objective of protecting the currency and to amend its consulting obligations with the Minister of Finance.
The Bank successfully brought an application to review and set aside this finding.
In the ruling today Constitutional Court judge Virginia Khampempe, said Mkhwebane’s model of the investigation was flawed.
Reacting to the judgement, Mkhwebane said that she stands by her report on SARB and that she believes she had not acted in bad faith.
"I will study the judgement and indeed, if his judgement is convincing or there are elements which then prove to them that are acted in bad faith -- and I know I acted in good faith and it's very clear from all my documentation that this investigation was conducted purely based on that -- so I will study the judgement and I will respond comprehensively," she said.
- African News Agency (ANA),
