Mkhwebane’s removal sets an important precedent: Casac

The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) executive director, Lawson Naidoo says the removal of the head of a Chapter 9 Institution by Parliament, sets an important precedent.

The National Assembly voted in favour of removing advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane from office as the Public Protector.

This, after a recommendation by the Section 194 committee that Mkhwebane be removed due to misconduct and incompetence.

It is the first time in the country’s democratic history that the head of a Chapter 9 Institution has been impeached.

The National Assembly had to develop its own rules for the process, seeing that the Constitution does not specify how the removal should be dealt with.

Naidoo says this removal by Parliament is an important step in the maturing of the democracy.

“It is about Parliament playing its proper Constitutional role … it is mandated to deal with these very serious matters and it needs to be able to do that. As I have said, I hope in future it will be able to do so more efficiently and not a dragged out process we have seen now.”

“But it is about Parliament exercising its authority, it’s about holding people to account … to their Constitutional mandates. So I think it’s an important step forward,” adds Naidoo.

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