Just hours after protesting against a vote in favour of an inquiry into public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office, some ANC MPs sympathetic to her caved in after the party's top brass gave them a line of march.
The MPs, including Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) president Kebby Maphatsoe, had said they would not participate in the vote on Tuesday to institute an inquiry against Mkhwebane.
Other MPs who voiced opposition to the process before the vote were former North West premier Supra Mahumapelo and Mervin Dirks.
But in an about-turn after the overwhelming vote in the National Assembly on Tuesday to adopt an independent panel report which found that there was prima facie evidence on Mkhwebane's unfitness, Maphatsoe told Sowetan that he was left with no choice.
“I decided to vote in support of the report because there was a clear instruction from national. They explained that we are not voting to remove her [Mkhwebane] but to investigate [her]. The final report will come and we will see how we vote then,” Maphatsoe said.
Maphatsoe said while he was dead set on rejecting the panel report, he and others were forced to comply after the line of march issued by ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe.
The panel, appointed by parliament and led by retired judge Bess Nkabinde, had recommended that the inquiry be held against Mkhwebane to probe allegations of misconduct and incompetence based on adverse court rulings against her, including that she had committed perjury and acted in bad faith during her probes and litigation.
The panel report came as a result of the DA’s complaint, but the governing party’s MPs on Tuesday overwhelmingly backed it.
National Assembly speaker Thandi Modise announced that a total of 275 MPs had moved to back the establishment of a formal inquiry into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office, with only 40 objecting while COPE’s Willie Madisha was the only one who abstained.
The EFF, ATM and Al Jama-ah voted against the report while the IFP, NFP, DA, ANC and the ACDP backed it.
Other ANC MPs, however, chose to log out of the virtual parliamentary platform before the conclusion of the voting process and their votes could not be counted.
Caucus sources told Sowetan's sister publication TimesLIVE that Mantashe wouldn’t entertain any debate on the matter and refused to take MPs’ questions during a caucus meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
Mantashe apparently told the meeting he was issuing the instruction on behalf of the party’s top six officials, the sources said.
MPs had previously indicated the top six officials, who include party president Cyril Ramaphosa and secretary-general Ace Magashule, would come up with the ANC’s position on the Mkhwebane matter as the ANC had no resolution on her future.
Party insiders said the party’s top six leaders decided on Monday they would listen to the caucus, and whether there was a strong view against proceeding with the matter.
Deputy president David Mabuza had been tasked to listen to the mood of the special caucus.
Political analyst Prof Tinyiko Maluleke said while the outcome of yesterday’s voting on the adoption of the report was significant, it did not have serious implications on its own.
“Yes, there was a significant vote in support of the report, but that does not mean the same will happen when the final report comes. Some MPs might have also felt why abandon the process and not adopt the report and go ahead with the inquiry after coming such a long way. We will have to wait and see if there will be no defiance when it comes to a vote in the final report,” Maluleke said.
The vote in support of the probe against Mkhwebane was a double blow, as her application for direct access to the Constitutional Court in her bid to block the parliamentary process against her was also dismissed by the ConCourt on Tuesday.
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