Mkhwebane claims political persecution after LPC announces its want to take away her advocate title

JOHANNESBURG - Former public protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, said she was being politically persecuted after the Legal Practice Council (LPC) announced it wants to strip her of her advocate title.

The council said this was related to her impeachment by Parliament after being found guilty of misconduct and incompetence.

The LPC is a statutory body with the dual purpose of regulating the legal profession and protecting members of the public from misconduct by legal practitioners.

Mkhwebane, who is now a member of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, said that she planned on opposing this.

"It's very much disappointing of them, they are also playing into politics and continuous persecution because firstly, it was published by [News24 journalist] Karyn Maughan on Twitter. I have not been informed and I think after people were commenting on Twitter they then decided to issue the statement, so I don't even know why they are going to strike me off the [advocate's] roll."

Other than reputational damage, Mkhwebane said that being stripped of her advocate title was unlikely to affect her financially as she does not represent people in court.

Mkhwebane said that she earned her advocate title through her work in the legal industry.

"It's just a title, they will never take my LLB, my other qualifications. I have excelled in my work, if they are thinking that the possible removal as Public Protector... I was the first PP to have three clean audits and out of the 400+ cases I finalised, only less than 40 were set aside. For me, it's just continuous persecution and possibly worse now because I am a member of uMkhonto weSizwe."