The Public Protector is in a Catch 22 situation in having to deal with the matters that are brought before her office.

This is the view of political analyst, Professor Bheki Mngomezulu. He says that the Public Protector is obliged to investigate all applications that are sent to her office.

Mngomezulu was responding as Busisiwe Mkhwebane had taken yet another blow to her credibility after the Constitutional Court found that she had misinterpreted parts of the executive ethics code when investigating the CR17 donations case.

His comments come as a majority ruling found that the President had not lied to Parliament about knowing that Bosasa had donated funds to his CR17 campaign.

The Constitutional Court also found that the Public Protector “had no authority” to order the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions to investigate “prima facie” evidence of money-laundering in the matter.

Meanwhile, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng had dissented on this ruling. He found that President Cyril Ramaphosa had flouted his duty to disclose the donors to the CR17 campaign.

Mogoeng says that the donors could have an influence over his decisions as President of the country.

[Header image: Felix Dlangamandla/Gallo]