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Cape Town – Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane is being too sensitive about claims that she worked as a spy, the DA said on Thursday.
“We have fulfilled our duty. I think that she is being overly sensitive, and I think that if you look at some of the things that were said and done to her predecessor, I would recommend that she has a teaspoon of cement and hardens up,” the party’s chief whip John Steenhuisen told reporters.
He said her predecessor Thuli Madonsela was called a CIA spy, a government agent “and all sorts of things. It goes with the territory”.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said she was welcome to consult her lawyers, as she had threatened on Wednesday.
Mkhwebane told Parliament’s justice committee on Wednesday that she wanted the party to withdraw its accusations and that she was consulting her lawyers.
“I would like my integrity to be restored. You say something like this and people have a certain perception about you. If I’m labelled a spy, it’s an issue of my integrity.”
She hoped the matter would be dealt with cordially.
During the interview and selection process to fill the public protector post, the DA said it would not support Mkhwebane.
At the time, the DA claimed it had received information from more than one source that she was on the State Security Agency’s payroll when she spent time in China as an immigration officer from 2010.
Steenhuisen said it was the party’s duty to put such questions to Mkhwebane during the selection process. It would have been completely wrong to not have put the questions and issues to her, and have lingering doubt.
Such interview processes should always be robust, he said.
