Public Protector challenges Mkhwebane’s contempt proceedings

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The Office of the Public Protector has filed an interlocutory application against former Public Protector Advocate Busisiswe Mkhwebane.

The office contends that Mkhwebane has improperly initiated contempt proceedings while a review application is still pending.

Mkhwebane is seeking gratuity payments amounting to millions of rands, which she claims are owed to her

The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria was seized on Wednesday with an interlocutory application by the respondents in the main application, the Office of the Public Protector and incumbent Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka.

This after Mkhwebane launched contempt proceedings against Gcaleka over what she has described as an incomplete record.

Counsel on behalf of Mkhwebane argues that this amounts to malicious compliance and – or contempt of court.

The former Public Protector then amended the notice of motion filed for the main application.

In April, Judge Colleen Collis ordered that the Office of the Public Protector and Gcaleka furnish Mkhwebane with the record and slapped them with a punitive costs order saying they were solely to blame for the fact that the main application was not ripe to be heard.

Gcaleka and the Office of the Public Protector want the application set aside in accordance with Rule 30 of the Uniform Rules of Court which stipulates that a party to a cause in which an irregular step has been taken by any other party may apply to court to set it aside.

The Public Protector also told the court that this latest bid by her predecessor merely seeks to punish and harass her.

Full details of the application are in the report below: