Public Protector has foreign heads shaking

By Chris Bateman.A quick review of highly credible overseas commentary and media analysis of the shenanigans, post State-Capture, of our so-called Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, reveals that she's being regarded with fast-growing suspicion..A precis of the coverage shows that it's not exactly boosting confidence in our economic recovery because it reveals the vulnerability of President Cyril Ramaphosa to the Zuptoid patronage network and the fightback that Mkhwebane is apparently at the legal vanguard of. No matter how apparent the pattern, or blatant the reform targets are, the longer she remains in her powerful position, the more sceptical potential investors get..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.The world has evidently woken up to the deep irony of how two incumbents of the Public Protector's office have in quick succession, firstly exposed rampant State Capture in the face of huge opposition by those in power, helping depose a president, and then attempting to unseat his successor via his alleged abuse of campaign funding in a battle for party leadership..While President Ramaphosa's office insists the money was normal fundraising and he did nothing wrong, leaked records show that tens of millions of dollars were donated to the campaign, tarnishing his image..While the previous Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, helped Ramaphosa turn the tide against dysfunctional and/or captured State institutions, the current incumbent claims these patronage claims are overblown – and that the current incumbents are the rogues. Unlike her predecessor, Mkhwebane glossed-over links between the Guptas and Free State government officials in assessing the infamous Estina Dairy scam revelations, bolstering the very kind of government officials Madonsela was so courageously at pains to bring to book..No less than current ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule, a Zuma lieutenant and then Premier of the Free State government, was at the centre of the Guptas looting that state agriculture funding of the ghostly Estina Dairy that should have aided poor black dairy farmers. Mkhwebane is the only Zuptoid ally left able to wield investigatory power and is solidly backed by the Economic Freedom Fighters, who recently physically threatened Ramaphosa's chief political ally Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan in parliament..It's a sudden turn-around from a few years ago when EFF leader Julius Malema called her "useless," the about-face being attributed by foreign media reportage to the EFF's alleged deep involvement in several suspicious transactions involving theft of billions from the VBS Bank. Were it not for the slew of condemnatory High Court judgements against her where judges have used words like 'mind-boggling' and 'nonsensical' to describe some of her arguments against those seeking legal redress, (including Gordhan and Ramaphosa), Mkhwebane might even have narrowly wriggled out of the corner she's painted herself into.

Public Protector has foreign heads shaking

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