Pretoria - Advocate Dali Mpofu, representing suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, told the parliamentary committee that the former head of provincial investigations, Lufuno Ndou, abandoned Mkhwebane before she could release the Estina Dairy Farm report.
Ndou testified on Thursday during an inquiry into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
He told Parliament that Mkhwebane wanted to avoid adverse findings in the investigation of the Free State’s Vrede Dairy Farm project.
Ndou’s testimony was not new to the parliamentary committee. This was also mentioned by several witnesses who came before him and said that Mkhwebane did not want politicians mentioned in the report.
Ndou added that he was not pleased with the fact that Mkhwebane did not want to include the Gupta Leaks in the report as he felt they were relevant.
He made several attempts to talk to Mkhwebane and even sent her an email saying “dismissing” the Gupta Leaks could be grounds for a review and the organisation would need very good reasons as to why it did not include the report. Mkhwebane did not respond to the email.
“I also recall raising the issue of the Gupta Leaks emails again at a subsequent task team meeting, and the Public Protector specifically saying that these emails were not part of the investigation.
“During a break in the meeting, I was later advised by Mr Nemasisi and the then secretary to the task team, Mr Tebele, to let the issue go, as they had tried to raise the matter at previous meetings and were also shot down by the PP,” Ndou said, reading his affidavit.
He said the report was finalised on 8 February 2018 during his absence. He said he had taken leave as he had other pressing matters to attend to.
“I recall receiving an SMS or WhatsApp from the Public Protector on 8 February 2018 to the effect that my being away on the day that we were supposed to be working on the report would make our working together in future difficult.
“She further stated that my leave was cancelled and I should return to the office immediately. I was not able to do so.”
He said he was only informed on 6 February 2018 that Mkhwebane wanted to complete the report.
“And then you disappeared,” Mpofu said to Ndou.
Ndou said he took leave for good reasons.
In her report, Mkhwebane claimed that she had been forced to constrain her Vrede Dairy Farm investigation because of financial constraints.
Ndou said he was not told this and had no experience of this happening in relation to other investigations.
“At no stage was I instructed that certain issues could not be investigated or had to be specifically left out because of financial constraints. It never came up in any discussions in which I was involved at any point,’’ he said.
The report was eventually taken to court for review. The North Gauteng High Court set aside the report, saying Mkhwebane had failed to investigate numerous irregularities properly and objectively by not interviewing victims and provincial politicians implicated in the Estina matter.
The hearing had to be adjourned after Ndou experienced connectivity issues. He is expected to continue with his testimony on Friday.
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