BREAKING NEWS: Constitutional Court dismisses Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s Estina appeal bid
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The Constitutional Court has dismissed public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s attempt to appeal against the damning judgment that invalidated her report on the Gupta-linked Estina Dairy Project scam.
The full court found Mkhwebane’s application for leave to appeal against the scathing rulings given against her by Pretoria high court judge Ronel Tolmay had “no reasonable prospect of success”.
The one-page ruling given by SA’s highest court means that Mkhwebane will now need to personally pay 7.5% of the legal costs of the DA and Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution’s court challenge to her report, which was criticised as a “whitewash”.
Mkhwebane had argued that Tolmay’s rulings had unconstitutionally sought to control what she did and did not investigate.
“I am of the respectful view that if this matter could be determined without any regard to my person or the status and identity of the subject of the investigation, a different conclusion may indeed be reached,” Mkhwebane stated in an appeal application filed at the Constitutional Court.
“I submit with respect that there are disturbing contradictions emerging from the courts in relation to the constitutional powers and functions of a public protector.”
The Constitutional Court has effectively rejected that argument.
The public protector has come under fire from a number of courts — including the Constitutional Court — for her apparent lack of impartiality and bad faith in conducting several politically charged investigations
By contrast, in the successful challenge to her Estina report, Mkhwebane was criticised for doing almost nothing to investigate the alleged involvement of former Free State premier Ace Magashule or former agriculture MEC Mosebenzi Zwane in irregularities and possible fraud linked to the scam. Magashule's son was employed by the Guptas, while Zwane repeatedly and visibly championed the family’s business interests while serving as mineral resources minister in former president Jacob Zuma’s cabinet.
Mkhwebane argued that she had elected not to fully investigate the Estina Project because of “resource constraints”.
The Estina project, which was signed off in 2012, was promoted by the Free State government as a mechanism to empower small-scale dairy farmers through the production and sale of milk. However, of the R220m in taxpayers’ money transferred to Estina — a Gupta-linked company contracted by the Free State’s agricultural department to run the project — only 1% was reportedly spent on actual farming.
Instead of uplifting poor black farmers, most of the balance of ...
The full court found Mkhwebane’s application for leave to appeal against the scathing rulings given against her by Pretoria high court judge Ronel Tolmay had “no reasonable prospect of success”.
The one-page ruling given by SA’s highest court means that Mkhwebane will now need to personally pay 7.5% of the legal costs of the DA and Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution’s court challenge to her report, which was criticised as a “whitewash”.
Mkhwebane had argued that Tolmay’s rulings had unconstitutionally sought to control what she did and did not investigate.
“I am of the respectful view that if this matter could be determined without any regard to my person or the status and identity of the subject of the investigation, a different conclusion may indeed be reached,” Mkhwebane stated in an appeal application filed at the Constitutional Court.
“I submit with respect that there are disturbing contradictions emerging from the courts in relation to the constitutional powers and functions of a public protector.”
The Constitutional Court has effectively rejected that argument.
The public protector has come under fire from a number of courts — including the Constitutional Court — for her apparent lack of impartiality and bad faith in conducting several politically charged investigations
By contrast, in the successful challenge to her Estina report, Mkhwebane was criticised for doing almost nothing to investigate the alleged involvement of former Free State premier Ace Magashule or former agriculture MEC Mosebenzi Zwane in irregularities and possible fraud linked to the scam. Magashule's son was employed by the Guptas, while Zwane repeatedly and visibly championed the family’s business interests while serving as mineral resources minister in former president Jacob Zuma’s cabinet.
Mkhwebane argued that she had elected not to fully investigate the Estina Project because of “resource constraints”.
The Estina project, which was signed off in 2012, was promoted by the Free State government as a mechanism to empower small-scale dairy farmers through the production and sale of milk. However, of the R220m in taxpayers’ money transferred to Estina — a Gupta-linked company contracted by the Free State’s agricultural department to run the project — only 1% was reportedly spent on actual farming.
Instead of uplifting poor black farmers, most of the balance of ...