Claims by Adv. Busisiwe Mkhwebane, suspended Public Protector (OP), that senior MPs tried to bribe her to pass the s. 194 investigation against her to disappear, is “unfounded”.
Mkhwebane lodged a complaint against Pemmy Majodina, ANC chief whip, Qubudile Dyantyi, chairman of the art. 194 committee that investigated her, and the late ANC MP Tina Joemat-Pettersson, in connection with the bribery allegations.
Mkhwebane claims Joemat-Pettersson, Majodina and Dyantyi allegedly tried to blackmail her husband, David Skosana, so that the investigation into her could “disappear”. She claims that they demanded R600 000 from her husband.
However, Parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members’ interests found that the version of events Skosana gave to the police, which forms the basis of the complaint, did not specifically mention Majodina and Dyantyi. The audio recordings also do not mention the two members of parliament and the WhatsApp messages do not link the two members of parliament to the allegation.
“Furthermore, the committee noticed that parts of the WhatsApp messages and audio recordings between Joemat-Pettersson and Skosana do not appear to be complete and therefore may not be a true reflection of the communication between them.”
Therefore, the committee found that the evidence before it does not provide a conclusion about the likelihood that the two MPs requested bribes and that the complaint is therefore unfounded.
In relation to the complaint against Joemat-Pettersson, the committee found that it was not within its jurisdiction to investigate it as she ceased to be an MP with her death in June.
Mkhwebane also lodged a complaint against Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, speaker of parliament, following a letter that Mkhwebane sent her in May. She claimed that Mapisa-Nqakula turned down her request for a meeting to disclose “serious” corruption and bribery allegations to her and that she disclosed Mkhwebane’s identity as a “whistleblower” and the MPs involved, who in the same party if she is, has benefited.
The committee found that the letter of 23 May 2023 did not provide any details, including the names of the members of parliament allegedly implicated in the bribery allegations. Also that the political affiliation of the MPs was not disclosed, and they were only referred to as “senior members of the National Assembly”, meaning that they could have been members of any political party represented in the National Assembly .
Furthermore, the committee found that Mkhwebane’s own affidavit admitted that the complaint filed by Skosana with the police had been leaked to the media. Details of the intended complaint were therefore disclosed by the police and not by Mapisa-Nqakula. Consequently, the committee found that the complaint was unfounded and that the speaker had not breached the code.
