Cape Town - Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fifth day of testimony to the parliamentary committee investigating her fitness to hold office yesterday concentrated on the questions of the so-called Sars rogue unit.
Senior counsel Dali Mpofu led Mkhwebane in evidence about her investigation into the Sars investigative unit and once again made a call for Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, who was then at Sars, to be called to give evidence to the committee.
Mkhwebane said the first part of her Sars investigation was driven by the fact that Gordhan had been accused of misleading Parliament about whether he had met a member of the Gupta family.
On Wednesday when he first broached the matter with Mkhwebane, Mpofu said the Sars unit report was probably the most litigated and contested report during Mkhwebane’s tenure.
Mkhwebane’s investigation was the tenth probe into allegations surrounding the Sars investigation unit and its head Johann van Loggerenberg.
Van Loggerenberg was one of the first witnesses to testify at the committee last year.
In 2019 Mkhwebane announced that her investigation into the Sars rogue unit found the allegation that the unit was established unlawfully to be substantiated.
On Thursday, Mkhwebane said her Sars rogue unit probe had been about compliance with the law “nothing more, nothing less”.
Mkhwebane told the committee that just like she had done with the CR17 investigation, she had approached the Sars matter with an open mind.
During testimony before the committee in August last year, former PPSA executive manager of investigations Ponatshego Mogaladi said the confidential report into the Sars rogue unit investigation by the State Security Agency (SSA) was sent to the public protector by EFF MP Floyd Shivambu.
She testified that Shivambu was the complainant and sent the document to her via email and WhatsApp.
Mogaladi told the committee that when she opened the report and realised what it was, she became concerned and did not read up to the second page.
“I was concerned about the implications of just having that document sent.”
On Thursday, Mkhwebane denied claims that she had relied “regurgitated, discredited reports” when she took on Shivambu’s complaint to investigate the purported rogue unit operating within Sars.
She said the role of the public protector and other Chapter 9 institutions was to strengthen constitutional democracy.