Suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has threatened to spill the beans on allegations of bribery and extortion attempts against her and her husband, Mandla Skosana.
SUSPENDED Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has threatened to spill the beans on allegations of bribery and extortion attempts against her and her husband, Mandla Skosana.
Mkhwebane and her husband are expected to shock the nation on Tuesday and “set the record straight” in a bid to make public for the first time the audio recordings that allege that three ANC MPs tried to extort a R600,000 bribe from Skosana.
A source close to the situation told the DFA’s sister publication The Star that Skosana is expected to release the audio recording of the first meeting he had with the late Tina Joemat-Pettersson at Ocean Basket restaurant at OR Tambo Airport on March 21, 2023.
It is reported that it was during this meeting that the late minister told him that the chairperson of the Section 194 inquiry probing Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office, Richard Dyantyi, the ANC chief whip in Parliament, Pemmy Majodina, and herself would need R200,000 each to make the impeachment inquiry “go away”.
The Star on Monday confirmed that Joemat-Pettersson was explicit during the meeting, for which she flew from Cape Town to specifically see Skosana, and that she was also representing Dyantyi and Majodina.
Skosana, who has reported the matter to the police, stated in his affidavit that he was approached by Joemat-Pettersson, who died last Monday under “mysterious circumstances”, and had allegedly asked for the bribe from Majodina and Dyantyi.
Skosana is Mkhwebane’s husband and states in his affidavit to the police that the trio, through Joemat-Pettersson, claimed they would “manipulate or make the inquiry go away”.
This comes as Skosana and Mkhwebane are due to hold a media briefing on Tuesday at a venue yet to be announced. Mkhwebane had on Friday hinted that she will hold a media briefing dropping a bombshell on the latest details of the now suspended Section 194 inquiry as well as make public “evidence of extortion, bribery, and corruption against Mr Dyantyi, Ms Majodina and the late Ms Joemat-Pettersson”.
Last week, Skosana opened a case at the OR Tambo International Airport police station, where he detailed some of the WhatsApp messages emanating from his interactions with the three accused individuals in the matter.
The death of Joemat-Pettersson, who was found dead on Monday at her home in Rondebosch, Cape Town, with no official confirmation from police on the cause of her death, has left South Africans speculating.
Speaking to the Sunday Tribune about Joemat Pettersson’s death this week, ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said they would await the medical reports instead of focusing on speculation.
She said the ANC will continue to treat Joemat-Pettersson’s suicide death claims as rumours until this is confirmed by medical officers.
Bhengu-Motsiri said that they had no basis for any suspicions around her death.
“We are treating them as rumours, just rumours, because we can’t give legs to something that has not been collaborated by medical evidence. From where we are sitting, she has left this world, and like any other human who passes on, you have to allow professionals to do the work that they need to do,” she said.
Dyantyi has remained resolute that he will not resign or entertain the allegations made against him. He said he is confident that he will be cleared of the allegations that he was part of the people who allegedly solicited a bribe from the Public Protector’s husband.
“I deny all these allegations. I won’t give legs to these allegations; bring the evidence and subject me to due process. I am a very responsible person in everything I do. Up until now, I have held myself with serious decorum. We have done it with rationality and fairness. Even after so many off-ramps, we have attended to all of them.
“I have made a point inside here that you must judge a pilot by how he is able to navigate the turbulence, not just when that pilot moves from point A to point B. That is a test for any driver or pilot, and I want to match that test,” he told eNCA.
Last week, Mkhwebane called for Dyantyi to resign, saying she has found it difficult to appear before him as he is one of the people implicated in the bribery claim.
The call for Dyantyi to resign also comes as opposition political parties such as the UDM, ATM, and EFF have called for the flighting of WhatsApp texts linked to the bribery allegations, with ATM leader Vuyo Zungula saying the allegations are too serious to ignore.
