Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Constitutional Court has unanimously dismissed Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s last-ditch bid to rescind its judgment endorsing the rules governing a long-awaited inquiry into her fitness to hold office.
In a short ruling delivered on Friday, the apex court said it had elected not to hear Mkhwebane’s rescission application, which was widely slammed as ill-conceived and legally baseless, without hearing any further argument on it.
“The court has concluded that the rescission application does not establish any rescindable errors in the judgment. There are also no exceptional circumstances that warrant the rescission of the judgment.
“Therefore, the court has concluded that the application should be dismissed as no case has been made out for rescission. The court has concluded that the application for direct access should be dismissed as no case has been made out for direct access,” it ruled.
The ruling means that Mkhwebane’s efforts to interdict President Cyril Ramaphosa from suspending her, and to block Parliament from proceeding with its investigation into her fitness to hold office, pending the outcome of the Constitutional Court’s ruling on her rescission application, have now been rendered moot.
The Public Protector is unlikely to accept that, however – particularly given her complaints about a contentious text message sent to counsel for Parliament, prior to the hearing of the interdict application, by consultant Ismail Abramjee.
In that text, Abramjee claimed to have it on “very good authority” that the apex court would dismiss Mkhwebane’s rescission application.
While Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has announced that his office is investigating the incident and Abramjee insists his comments were not based on any insider information, the Public Protector is nonetheless persisting with a criminal complaint over the saga.
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