Busisiwe Mkhwebane redirected office funds for legal battles, Parliament told

The parliamentary inquiry into suspended Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office has heard how funds were redirected and budgets cut to fund legal battles in the office.

Head of the public protector’s office in the Free State, Sphelo Samuel spent the day testifying before the national assembly on Wednesday.

He provided his account of affairs at the Office of the Public Protector’s office under Mkhwebane’s leadership.

Samuel told Parliament that under Mkhebane, the Office of the Public Protector became significantly more litigious.

“It meant that other programmes in the office would suffer because the money that was budgeted for other programs was now diverted to legal fees and the principle [that] up until then followed was that we are not an institution that is involved in litigation as our primary function.”

He said programmes targeted at South Africans in rural areas were the first to suffer as travel budgets were slashed.

Samule added that the office’s outreach clinics were underfunded.

Mkhwebane’s lawyer, Advocate Dali Mpofu is expected to begin his cross-examination of Samuel on Thursday morning