Lawyers for Public Protector Busi Mkhwebane are intending to ask the Pretora high court to rule that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordan is guilty of ‘criminal contempt’.
This would be in terms of the Public Protector Act, which specifies that ‘no person shall insult the public protector or deputy public protector’. Mkhwebane believes that this is what Gordon’s comments in respect of her report on the early retirement of Ivan Pillay from the SA Revenue Service.
Her report found that Gordhan had approved a pension payout improperly, and the president should sanction him for having done so. Gordhan rejected this, with a media release saying that the Public Protector ‘continues to get the facts wrong, get the law wrong and is demonstrably biased.’
Gordhan has rejected the claim that his reaction amounted to insult.
An insult to the Public Protector can carry a heavy fine or a jail term, but this has never happened.
Mkhwebane has been the subject of considerable controversy, with a number of her reports having been successfully challenged.