South African anti-corruption chief facing impeachment

A high court in South Africa has dismissed an appeal by the head of the country’s independent anti-corruption institution to have her impeachment by parliament halted and her suspension by the president overturned.

On Friday, the Western Cape High Court set aside public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s application to reverse the actions taken by the National Assembly and President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying it fell “overwhelmingly short” of the requirements.

The verdict was the second major setback for a beleaguered Ms Mkhwebane in less than 24 hours.

On Thursday, Mr Ramaphosa suspended her from her ombudsman role pending the outcome of parliament’s investigation into her fitness to hold office. The impeachment hearing is due to get under way on July 11th.

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Appointed by parliament in 2016, Ms Mkhwebane has had a difficult career to date.

She has had several high-profile legal decisions, including a couple involving Mr Ramaphosa, go against her and was found guilty in 2019 by the constitutional court of having lied under oath.

However, Mr Ramaphosa’s decision to suspend Ms Mkhwebane has drawn mixed reactions in South Africa despite her past record. Those who support him are happy he has sidelined someone they believe has actively worked to undermine his presidency.

They claim Ms Mkhwebane is aligned with a faction in the African National Congress (ANC) that is fighting to oust Mr Ramaphosa as party leader at the movement’s elective conference later this year.

But some South Africans have questioned the motives behind the president’s decision to suspend Ms Mkhwebane, as only two days earlier she said her office had received a complaint that he had breached the executive’s code of ethics.

The breach is linked to a robbery that occurred at Mr Ramaphosa’s private game farm in Limpopo Province in 2020 in which $4 million (€3.8 million) in cash was allegedly stolen, but the theft was never officially reported to the police.

The former head of the South African State Security Agency, Arthur Fraser, brought the theft to the public’s attention.

Earlier this month, he filed a criminal complaint with police that stated Mr Ramaphosa had been involved in kidnapping, bribery, money laundering, and concealing a crime.

The president was out of the country at the time of the theft, but it is alleged that upon his return he tasked his head of security, Maj Gen Wally Rhoode, to investigate it.

Maj Gen Rhoode and his team are said to have tracked down the alleged thieves and interrogated them, but he never reported the crime to the police.

Mr Ramaphosa’s office has confirmed a robbery occurred, but it says the sum involved is much less than $4 million. He also denies any wrongdoing but has declined to answer questions about the incident.

Fighting corruption has been a central plank of Mr Ramaphosa’s election campaigns since he contested the ANC’s and South Africa’s leadership races in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

Many political observers believe the theft scandal is being used by his enemies to damage his chances of securing a second term as the ANC’s leader.