Africa-Press – South-Africa. Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane never contacted former South African Revenue Service (SARS) executive Johann van Loggerenberg when investigating the so-called “rogue unit”, he told the Section 194 Committee on Wednesday.
Van Loggerenberg was the second witness in Mkhwebane’s impeachment hearings.
His testimony during the morning session related to the charge that Mkhwebane was guilty of misconduct because she had displayed bias.
Van Loggerenberg said there was an “orchestrated propaganda campaign” focused on SARS’ investigative unit, which he headed. It was “extremely brutal” and “humiliating to a lot of people”.
He said this was the “pretext for state capture” at SARS, and was “the blood in the water”.
He said: “And the sharks were circling and they all joined in the fray.”
He said that was the reason why SARS was now weakened.
Van Loggerenberg said he was still traumatised by the events.
“This propaganda remains.”
He said it had become politically expedient to latch onto the “rogue unit” narrative.
Mkhwebane impeachment: Public Protector mustn’t put own interests ahead of the public’s, committee hears
Van Loggerenberg’s complaint against Mkhwebane was that she didn’t seek his input when investigating the “rogue unit”, which culminated in a report published in July 2019.
He dismissed her excuse that a summons couldn’t be delivered. He said his address and contact details hadn’t changed, and he had previously contacted the Office of the Public Protector to give his account of events.
Van Loggerenberg said he wasn’t only testifying on his own behalf, but on behalf of every other South African who had been affected by the report.
Van Loggerenberg said he wrote to Mkhwebane in June 2019 to ask her to stop referring to him as being part of a “rogue unit” and to stop suggesting that the unit had “killed people” because such claims were “defamatory”. She refused to budge.
“I wasn’t heard in this whole saga. I was simply disregarded as if I as if I didn’t exist and [was] irrelevant.”
He likened Mkhwebane’s refusal to hear his side to a theoretical situation of the committee not allowing her to testify or cross-examine witnesses.
Mkhwebane impeachment hearings: Mpofu continues to rail against suspension, lawfulness of process
In his affidavit to the committee, he said: “I believe I have made out a proper case that, in my experience, Ms Mkhwebane failed to act without prejudice. Instead, she accepted unsubstantiated claims and wild accusations with absolutely no evidence whatsoever and from people she had never even interviewed or asked to go on oath, as if fact, and then failed to engage with me to seek my side of their claims.”
He added that she also failed to engage with information he had previously provided to the Office of the Public Protector.
“It will be remiss of me not to point out the irony in the fact that Ms Mkhwebane has been spending an awful lot [of] time, effort and taxpayer monies in order to ensure that she is afforded an opportunity to be heard and to be represented in this process,” reads the affidavit.
“It stands a far cry from what she had bothered to afford me and many others. She interviewed not one single member who was part of the unit over the years, at any stage, whatsoever. That alone speaks for itself.”
Mkhwebane’s report into the “rogue unit” was set aside in damning court judgments.
Van Loggerenberg’s testimony continues into Wednesday afternoon.
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