Mkhwebane takes another swipe at judiciary, says courts being used against her

CAPE TOWN - Former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has again taken a swipe at the judiciary, saying that persistent cost orders against her raised questions about its integrity and impartiality. 

After another loss in the courts on Wednesday, this time to obtain a R10 million gratuity from her former employer, Mkhwebane responded, saying it was part of choreographed persecution against her.

She said that legal processes appeared to be entangled with political machinations.

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Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Busisiwe Mkhwebane said that Wednesday's court outcome was part of an ongoing pattern of weaponising legal proceedings to corner her financially.

Following the dismissal of her application by the North Gauteng High Court, Mkhwebane posted on her social media that the courts were being used to drain resources and morale.

While it was Mkhwebane who had asked the court to make a costs order against the Public Protector and Parliament on a punitive scale, Judge Omphemetse Mooki chose rather to make her pay after dismissing her application as "absurd". 

Last week, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) also dismissed her application to appeal a Western Cape High Court ruling in respect of her parliamentary impeachment inquiry and also ordered her to pay costs.

Mkhwebane said that the repeated legal and financial pressures directed towards her, revealed underlying inequities and systemic manipulation of the justice system. 

She said that legal observers must question whether the courts were merely upholding the law or if they were being manipulated to persecute those who stood their ground.