More may join fight against protector
Key state bodies to decide on throwing weight behind Cyril
● A state regulatory body is considering joining President Cyril Ramaphosa’s application to review the public protector’s Bosasa donation report on the grounds that privacy laws were breached during the investigation.
Information Regulator head Pansy Tlakula said yesterday the regulator had requested the court papers and would determine tomorrow whether to join the case as a friend of the court.
Tlakula said: “Privacy issues have been raised so we are considering whether we should join or not.”
The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) is said to be deciding whether to take action against public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane for allegedly breaching the Financial Intelligence Act. She said she obtained bank statements from the FIC.
The move by the regulator may strengthen Ramaphosa’s case to have Mkhwebane’s report set aside, and bolster the argument for her impeachment.
The FIC is said to believe that Mkhwebane acted against the law when she cited the information she received from it as evidence in her report.
According to the law, investigative bodies may rely on information from the FIC to direct their probes but are prohibited from making such information public.
The Sunday Times understands Mkhwebane ought to have subpoenaed the banks independently for the information.
Even though the information was sealed by the high court, confidential private donor information was leaked.
The leaked bank statements of accounts used by the CR17 campaign revealed a list of donors, the amounts donated and who received money.
It revealed that senior ANC leaders received tens of millions of rands from the campaign and two EFF MPs received money from a bank account linked to the campaign.
Privacy issues have been raised so we are considering whether we should join or not
Pansy Tlakula Head of the Information Regulator
These are the records on which Mkhwebane based her findings that there may have been money laundering involved in the CR17 campaign.
That report is now under review.
Tlakula said the regulator had read in the media that privacy protocols had been breached in this matter and it was now applying its mind to the court papers.
The role of the Information Regulator is to enforce compliance with privacy laws, including the Protection of Personal Information Act.
If the regulator joins the case as a friend of the court, it would argue that it was unlawful for private information contained in the bank records to have been made public.
Previously, Mkhwebane said she had done nothing wrong and that the information now in the public domain was obtained from the FIC.
The FIC has appointed attorneys after the presidency wrote a letter to it, accusing the centre of unlawfully leaking bank account statements linked to Ramaphosa’s 2017 ANC election campaign.
In a letter last week to the head of the FIC, Xolisile Khanyile, Ramaphosa’s legal team asked why the FIC had illegally given confidential bank records to Mkhwebane.
The team asked Khanyile why the FIC gave Mkhwebane more than two years of bank records even though she had asked only for information in relation to the R500,000 donation by the now late head of Bosasa, Gavin Watson, to Ramaphosa’s ANC presidential campaign in 2017.
The FIC asked for extra time to respond to Ramaphosa’s lawyers. The centre has until Tuesday to respond. But it is understood that the FIC is now in a corner.
A source close to the matter said the FIC believed that Mkhwebane acted against the law and she should not have revealed that she received information from it.
The source said it was possible that the FIC would be roped in to Ramaphosa’s court case. It would argue that it was unlawful for Mkhwebane to rely solely on information sent to her without issuing proper subpoenas to the banks.
Attempts to get comment from the FIC were unsuccessful.
Mkhwebane’s spokesperson, Oupa Segalwe, said he could not comment on the matter.