Thomas Johnson - The Blog

Parliament has voted to impeach public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane. And in a highly unusual move, President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended her. This follows a long, determined campaign by his supporters to remove her from office. The campaign, or more correctly witch-hunt, did not start within the ANC or government as one would think, but as whisperings in the media about Mkhwebane's alleged wrongdoings. Chief among them was so-called self- and media-styled constitutional expert UCT law professor Pierre de Vos and others, mainly in left-liberal media Daily Maverick and Primedia's Cape Talk/702. It must be said that De Vos, a career academic who never practised law as an attorney or advocate, was reportedly an applicant for the public protector job Mkhwebane got. Her grevious sin was to have investigated and made findings against former finance minister Pravin Gordhan. It mattered not to the baying mob that members of the public laid the complaints. Even before he won on appeal,...

Early this year deputy minister of justice and constitutional affairs John Jeffery paid an unannounced visit to the Cape Town Master’s Office and was “disappointed” by its “inefficiency” (news reports). My late mother’s estate too has been affected by four years of unexplained delays and gross inefficiency during which documents were passed around from pillar to post and repeatedly “lost”. The executor resubmitted them numerous times.   One impact on my mother’s heirs was insurance of R6,000 a year, or R18,000 so far, a waste that will not be reimbursed.   In November 2021 the executor, whose representations were ignored, suggested we write to the Master, Zureena Agulhas, which I did complaining about the delays. Only then did she take action. They finally issued the letter of executorship so that now he may begin the process of winding up the estate.   The Administration of Estates Act states the entire process should take about six months.   A Groundup inv...