Mkhwebane has worked at the Department of Home Affairs as the director.
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“The DA has been advised that the time she spent as an “immigration officer” in China was also suspicious, having been informed that this was simply coded language for being on the payroll of the SSA”.
The DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach says they don’t mean to cast aspersions on Mkhwebane and that she may turn out to be a good Public Protector.
Her link to the SSA – in July 2016 when she took up employment as an analyst – had been publicly disclosed during interview proceedings before the parliamentary ad hoc selection committee, she said.
The DA dropped the bomb in parliament on Tuesday, a day before the National Assembly is due to officially nominate Mkhwebane as Thuli Madonsela’s replacement.
The DA says it is important to ensure that the new Public Protector is beyond suspicion.
The ANC has described the DA’s objections as “perplexing, irrational and constitutionally baseless”.
The party cited this as the main reason it won’t be supporting Mkhwebane today when 60 percent of Members of Parliament in the National Assembly must endorse her name before it gets sent to President Jacob Zuma, who makes the final appointment.
Other concerns raised by the party are Mkhwebane’s lack of experience compared to other shortlisted candidates, notably Judge Sharise Weiner and Professor Bongani Majola.
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He said this was a concern in “the current climate” in which South Africans anxious about “Big Brother tendencies”‚ after a parliamentary committee adopted a report recommending her to replace outgoing Thuli Madonsela a week ago.
