CR17: Public Protector to Approach ConCourt Again over Ramaphosa Ruling
- Public Protector Busiswe Mkhwebane is said to be considering approaching the Constitutional Court over its ruling as she supports President Cyril Ramaphosa
- Public Protector spokesperson Oupa Segalwe says Mkhwebane had not changed the wording of the Executive Code of Ethics as suggested by the ConCourt
- Segalwe added that there are two versions of the code and the Constitutional Court referred to the wrong one in its findings
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Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane stated that she would consider approaching the Constitutional Court to ask it to review its finding that she altered the wording in the Executive Code of Ethics when it dismissed her appeal.
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Mkhwebane approached the Constitutional Court in an effort to have the High Court's decision on her report on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s CR17 ANC election campaign funding overturned, according to TimesLIVE.
Her report stated that Ramaphosa misled Parliament about the financing of his ANC presidential campaign in 2017.
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The Constitutional Court also ruled that the constitution and the Public Protector's Act do not authorise Mkhwebane to investigate the private affairs of political parties according to BusinessLIVE.
In relation to Ramaphosa allegedly misleading parliament, public protector spokesperson Oupa Segalwe said Mkhwebane was considering asking the court to reconsider its decision that she changed the wording of the executive code of ethics by removing the adjective "wilfully" and replacing it with "deliberately and inadvertently."
Segalwe added that Mkhwebane would not change the wording to the Executive Code of Ethics stating that there are two different versions of the code. One was published in 2000 and uses the phrase 'willfully,' while the second was published in 2007 and uses the words 'deliberately and unwittingly,' as the Public Protector mentioned in her conclusions.
According to Segalwe, the Constitutional Court erred by referring to the 2000 version of the code rather than the 2007 version.
“In addition, the PP has previously relied on the same version when she made adverse findings of misleading parliament against the likes of former minister Lynne Brown,” he said in a quote by BusinessLIVE.
He further stated that the office of the Public Protector has always used the 2007 version of the code, dating back to the time of Advocate Thuli Mandonsela.
Mkhwebane Vs Ramaphosa: ConCourt says the president did not mislead Parliament about CR17
In a previous report, Briefly News reported that the Constitutional Court found that Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane had changed the wording of the Executive Ethics Code. She concluded that President Cyril Ramaphosa purposely misled the legislature.
The ConCourt dismissed the PP's appeal regarding a judgement at the Pretoria High Court. In March last year, Mkhwebane's report was set aside. The report found that the president misled Parliament in terms of funding the CR17 campaign.
The Constitutional Court had to rule on whether the president had misled Parliament in terms of the donations made to the CR17 campaign. In short, the appeal by the PP was dismissed and leave to appeal was granted, this is according to IOL.
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Source: Briefly News
