South Africa’s beleaguered Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, accused of lying thrice under oath about a meeting she had with former President Jacob Zuma, on Thursday requested the court to postpone her hearing to enable her present new evidence that would lead the court to dismiss the charges.
Following the request, the Pretoria Regional Court granted the Ombudsman till 25 March to present the new evidence in court to enable the latter dismiss the case, her lawyer Dali Mpofu said.
Mkhwebane is accused of lying about a meeting she had with Zuma on three occasions where the provisional and final Absa-Bankorp Report and recommendations were allegedly discussed.
However, the details of that meeting were misrepresented when the police investigating her methods of compiling the Absa-Bankorp Report came under scrutiny in court, leading the National Prosecution Authority to charge her with perjury.
The NPA in December charged Mkhwebane with perjury after the Constitutional Court during a case against her and the South African Reserve Bank found information considered to be untruths.
According to the Constitutional Court, Mkhwebane had “put forward a number of falsehoods” in her 2017 Absa-Bankorp Report, in which she recommended that Absa must repay US$73 million to the Reserve Bank for the “lifeboat” lending agreement between the Reserve Bank and the then Bankorp — which was later taken over by Absa.
Head of Accountability Now, Paul Hoffman, in 2019 laid criminal charges against Mkhwebane following the Constitutional Court’s judgment.
During her appearance, her lawyer said that his client wanted to have the three perjury charges against her withdrawn because they were “frivolous.”
During the two-month postponement of the case, his client would make representations to the director of public prosecutions (DPP) to have the charges quashed, he added.
Mpofu told the court that the accused regarded the charges “as frivolous and contrived” and that if their request for a withdrawal was not granted, the defence team would approach the high court to seek the desired outcome.
On its part, the NPA said it had a strong case against her and it had no qualms with her approaching the DPP to present her new evidence during the pretrial hearings.
“There is a strong case against her,” NPA Sipho Ngwema said on Thursday.
NM/as/APA