Busisiwe Mkhwebane. (Madelene Cronje/M&G)
South Africa’s impeached public protector, advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, says she should be given a position of authority in the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) — the party she joined on Monday.
“Due to my seven years experience as a public protector, it would be wise for the Economic Freedom Fighters to place me in a position of authority,” Mkhwebane told the Mail & Guardian.
She also said she believes her experience in the public sector will benefit the minority-party’s decision-makers when they win positions in provincial and national offices.
“The level at which I was investigating executives, including the president, and knowing exactly where the gaps are in the policies, gives me an advantage of how one can influence policy. At a senior level, I will be of great assistance, but wherever I am deployed, I will make sure that I contribute and change the lives of South Africans,” she added.
“I have done a number of reports which suggested a number of changes in policies in how the government was operating. I am experienced in the industry, but it is up to the leadership to decide.”
She said that there were attempts to woo her from various organisations and political parties — including the African National Congress — at provincial level, but she decided to go with the EFF because it offered her “better possibilities”.
On Monday, Mkhwebane signed her red berets’ membership form, saying she had joined the party because she related to its “seven cardinal pillars”.
“As a public protector, I always said I will protect the poor and the marginalised. [Joining the EFF] is giving me an opportunity to continue to do that.”
Mkhwebane was impeached and removed from her position in September in a historic vote, with 318 MPs voting for her impeachment and 43 against.
The EFF, African Transformation Movement, United Democratic Movement, Pan-Africanist Congress, African Independent Congress and Al Jama-ah opposed her removal.
Mkhwebane is the second high-ranking official to join the EFF in recent months. In June, former government communications boss, and Jacob Zuma Foundation spokesperson, Mzwanele Manyi, was parachuted into parliament to serve as an MP just a month after joining the party.
The political aspirations Mkhwebane expressed to the M&G, however, differ with the EFF declaration that she read aloud on Monday.
As per that declaration, she said she understood she was not entitled to any position or deployment. This is despite mounting rumours that the party intends to include her in its MP list, thereby hindering the chances of other, long-serving party members to become MPs.
This has been a major cause of discontent within the party, where loyal members have been sidelined to make way for prominent figures.
In 2019, the party expelled a KwaZulu-Natal provincial command team (PCT) member for refusing to cede her place on the EFF parliamentary list to make way for party treasurer general, Omphile Maotwe.
A KwaZulu-Natal leader in the PCT said there were concerns that giving Mkhwebane a higher position would lead to a loss of dedicated members so close to elections.
“It’s always the case, we have seen it happen before. [W]e know that a person like Mkhwebane will need to be appeased to stay in the party, and there is nothing bigger than the MP position,” the leader said.
“We just don’t know whose head will be chopped. This will be very hard to take so close to elections.”
Earlier this year, prior to the EFF’s 10th birthday celebration, around 200 members were removed from parliamentary and legislature positions for failing to organise buses that would ferry EFF supporters to the celebration.
Asked how she felt about the removal of the members from parliament, Mkwebane said as a firm believer in “consequence management”, she believed the party was within its rights to remove the members for failing to do their jobs, which they had been informed of in advance.
“If the party got rid of them even after the members admitted that they were struggling well in advance, then I would have put blame on the party, but keeping quiet and claiming to have struggled without asking for help, then they can’t blame the party, ” she said.
Political analyst Professor Levy Ndou said placing a fledgling member like Mkhwebane in a position of authority “really has a potential to create a situation where some might feel that they’re being overlooked”.
It could also lead to highlighting “an element of favouritism, because some people will come in and then they’re given a parliamentarian position without serving,” he said.
In July during a media briefing, party leader Julius Malema raised concerns about the lack of education of EFF members, and their dearth of experience and skills in government, and how this would affect the party when it was eventually voted into a position to govern.
A senior leader in the central command team —EFF’s highest decision making body — said having Mkhwebane as a member would benefit the party.
“Mkhwebane is well known in the country and so is Manyi, should we get an opportunity to [govern], we know that these individuals can do the job and do it well, because they know the lay of the land, compared to our members that only know activism,” the leader, who spoke on condition that they don’t be named, said.
“That is why we keep pushing for our members to be educated, the plan is not always to be a small party but to lead.”
Mkhwebane further told the M&G that she would be bringing her “supporters and sympathisers” with her to the EFF, to help contribute to the party’s one million membership goal.
In order for the EFF to gain a majority vote, she said, they need to continue holding the executive to account and avoid falling into the trap of making false promises.
“We have seen the good of taking people out of misery to work for the EFF in Ekurhuleni where it governs. The municipality remains the best run municipality in Gauteng and we are seeing a change in governance and how the EFF is a force to be reckoned with,” she said.
Ndou said it was not surprising that Mkhwebane would join the party with high expectations, because “it was possible that she was recruited with conditions to be given a higher position in parliament or provincial government”.
“For the EFF to have her as a member, it means they will give her a high profile position. So it will therefore mean that if she is deployed in a municipality, it will be in a municipality, where the EFF is in coalition with other parties, and then she must be given a higher profile position there,” he said.
Mkhwebane’s relationship with Malema has also raised questions about how they will continue to work together despite Malema formerly describing her as a “Gupta stooge”.
Mkhwebane said that much like Nelson and Winnie Mandela, who were once persecuted and branded as terrorists by the apartheid government while they fought for freedom in South Africa, her work had endured and would eventually be recognised despite the challenges she currently faces.
She was the first public protector to receive a clean audit three times in a row, she said. “So I think they see my work, and my work ethic and morality and the integrity that comes with it.”