It is not only in SA that dishonest charlatans rise to the top. No sooner had British Prime Minister Theresa May resigned in an emotional speech outside 10 Downing Street on Friday than news headlines across the UK announced Conservative MP Boris Johnson to be the favoured successor.
This is the same Boris Johnson who actively campaigned for Britain to leave the EU but then failed to come up with a plan for how this was to be done.
The same Boris Johnson who has made several offensive remarks concerning foreign political leaders, referred to Africa as “that country” and described women who wear burqas as “looking like letter boxes”.
Three high court judgments have been scathing of her failure to uphold her duties under the Public Protector Act and the constitution. And yet she blithely bumbles on, feigning shock when yet another of her reports is declared unlawful in a court of law
He was widely condemned following a Conservative Party conference in 2017 when he praised a group of UK investors’ vision to turn the Libyan city of Sirte into “the next Dubai” once they had “cleared the dead bodies away”.
On Friday, Reuters reported that Johnson told a conference in Switzerland that the UK would leave the EU on October 31 with or without a deal. Well, we’ve seen how that ends.
Assuming the UK is not spared a Johnson premiership, the Brits may want some tips on how to put up with pretenders. They should look no further than SA, where they masquerade with no fear of consequence or sanction.
Into the vacuum left by trickster-in-chief and former president Jacob Zuma have stepped others. For example, disgraced public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.
Three high court judgments have been scathing of her failure to uphold her duties under the Public Protector Act and the constitution. And yet she blithely bumbles on, feigning shock when yet another of her reports is declared unlawful by a court.
If the ANC cares remotely about tackling corruption and strengthening the country’s institutions, it should start by removing Mkhwebane.
The office of the public protector is critical to the fight against corruption, endowed as it is with powers to investigate and redress maladministration and the abuse of power in state affairs. Mkhwebane has plainly demonstrated that she has no interest in performing any of these.
The most recent judgment, involving her report into the Gupta-linked Vrede dairy-farm matter, found she lacked understanding of the law and ignored information before her, notably the Gupta e-mail leaks.
‘Tarnished reputation’
In 2017, when Mkhwebane tried to use her office to change the mandate of the Reserve Bank, but then backpedalled when it dawned on her that she had unthinkably overreached, judge John Murphy said her “begrudging concession of unconstitutionality offers no defence to the charges of illegality, irrationality and procedural unfairness”.
“A dismissive and procedurally unfair approach by the public protector to important matters placed before her by prominent role players in the affairs of the state will tarnish her reputation and damage the legitimacy of her office,” wrote Murphy.
Later, in the related Absa-Bankorp matter, so displeased were the judges with the “unacceptable” way in which Mkhwebane had conducted her investigation that they ruled she should pay a portion of the Reserve Bank’s legal costs from her own pocket. That is now before the Constitutional Court.
Only three days ago, she released a curiously timed finding against public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan. To no-one’s surprise, Gordhan is taking the report on review.
What more does the ANC need to remove her? Her bungled reports are wasting taxpayers’ money and giving Moody’s Investors Service, which has pointed to the need to rebuild institutions following the Zuma years, cause to downgrade us. That would be disastrous for SA, prompting forced selling of our bonds to the tune of R100bn or more as we lose our only remaining investment-grade credit rating.
And so, as the DA brings a second motion to remove Mkhwebane in parliament, the ANC has a chance to prove it is serious about building a government that upholds the constitution. How it acts on Mkhwebane will indicate whether it has any plans to do so.
• Ziady writes from Cambridge
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