In an impassioned interview on Tuesday morning with 702 radio host Eusebius McKaiser, the Public Protector’s spokesperson‚ Cleopatra Mosana‚ said Busisiwe Mkhwebane did not get the law wrong when she recommended that the Constitution be amended to expand the mandate of the Reserve Bank.
Asked on what basis the public protector had made the recommendation‚ she said the decision was based on her interpretation of the law and that she had good intentions when looking at the narrow mandate of the Bank.
"This is an issue of technicality. She had to concede‚ following that‚ maybe the manner in which this has been crafted has created the tension‚" Mosana said. "She didn’t get the law wrong. At the end of the day‚ why is the report still standing and being implementable if she got the law wrong?"
The public protector’s office announced in an affidavit on Monday that Mkhwebane will not oppose a court challenge against her binding proposal calling for a change to the mandate of the Bank.
Mosana was adamant that mistakes were made when Mkhwebane drafted the remedial action regarding changing the role of the Bank. She defended this by asking what the core issue was: "There is nothing wrong with admitting that you as a person concede that you have made a mistake, and the public protector works with a team."
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