It’s ‘fighter’ Busisiwe Mkhwebane now as former public protector joins EFF

Impeached public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has joined the EFF just a month after her removal from office.

Mkhwebane announced the move at a press conference in Kwaggafontein, Mpumalanga, on Monday.

She said she was joining the party, the third largest in parliament, because she related to its seven cardinal pillars, especially those that relate to economic emancipation of black and poor people.

The party will give her an opportunity to continue the work of “protecting” poor South Africans, she said.

“Our people are landless and the EFF is saying it will make sure they will expropriate the land without compensation,” said Mkhwebane.

“I was approached by several political parties and several leaders, and when I was recruited to join the EFF I could relate to the seven cardinal pillars. I believe in the issue of controlling the centres of economy, I believe in nationalisation of mines. It is critical that the state owns those resources for the benefit of everyone.

“We should own the economic structures which are there, the banks, the insurance companies and everything.”

The current system was not benefiting the poor and the marginalised, said Mkhwebane.

On her support for the call for a state bank, Mkhwebane said: “You will remember one of the key issues of me being clobbered with personal cost orders and being removed by the ANC ... I believed that the SA Reserve Bank should change their mandate ... to the benefit of South Africans and create economic activity.”

In 2017, Mkhwebane recommended in her Absa-Bankorp report that Absa should repay R1.1bn to the Reserve Bank. Her remedial actions directed parliament to amend the constitution to change the mandate of the bank.

The high court ruled against Mkhwebane on appeal and imposed a personal cost order against her. When she appealed, the Constitutional Court upheld the order and found that her entire model of investigation was flawed.

Despite a news report on Monday that she would take one of the four vacant EFF seats in parliament, Mkhwebane was adamant she was not joining the party for a position.

“I joined this movement to make sure the poor, especially, are their own liberators and that they don’t go without water, electricity and other needs. I want to make sure I’m with them to hold the executive in municipalities and elsewhere accountable and to make sure people are treated fairly and equally.”

She said she was not disgruntled but believes the way she was treated by the ANC and DA in parliament exposed the governing party as an organisation that did not stand with the poor and marginalised.

Mkhwebane’s tumultuous term as public protector ended just a month before its prescribed seven years was over, when an overwhelming majority of MPs voted for her removal on the basis of incompetence and misconduct.

Joining the EFF is her first opportunity to hold membership of a political party, she said.

“I have never been a member of any other political party. I am here. This is my political home now. I will be learning the ropes from my colleagues, fellow commissars and fighters, so that we can continue and protect the poor and the marginalised.”

The EFF has been supportive of Mkhwebane in recent years and was opposed to her impeachment.