Cape Town - Former Public Protector executive manager Lufuno Ndou has denied that he had been insubordinate by refusing to return to the office after receiving a text message from suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane while he was on leave.
Ndou, the committee’s 11th witness, returned to the stand on Tuesday after being forced off the virtual platform by technical and weather challenges during his testimony on Thursday last week.
Appearing in person before the inquiry into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office, Ndou told ANC MP Jane Mananiso that when he did eventually return to the office after his leave, he expected recrimination, but did not feel intimidated.
Ndou worked at the PPSA for 19 years in various capacities, starting as a senior investigator and filling the role of acting chief executive from December 1, 2016 to January 31, 2017. He resigned in 2018.
Earlier Mkhwebane’s lawyer, Dali Mpofu, completed his cross examination of Ndou which had been interrupted on Thursday when Ndou testified that he received a phone call from Mkhwebane in September or October 2017 in which she raised concerns with the Vrede Dairy investigation.
Ndou had testified that Mkhwebane had said she would be happy if there were no adverse findings in the report.
Today, Mpofu wanted Ndou to clarify that when Mkhwebane said she would personally be happy if there were no adverse findings in the report, she was making a general statement and not necessarily speaking about politicians.
Ndou said his sense would be that it would also include politicians because adverse findings could be found against anyone. However, he agreed with Mpofu that Mkhwebane’s statement to him was open ended and was not targeted at a particular group of people.
With regards to testimony that Mkhwebane wanted no adverse findings against Free State politicians in the Vrede dairy report, Ndou said he understood this to be a personal wish by Mkhwebane and not necessarily an instruction to act in a particular way, but that this wish had implications for the investigation.
Mpofu returned to Monday’s testimony by the inquiry’s 12th witness, former PPSA chief operating officer Basani Baloyi, who described Mkhwebane as wanting people to bow down before her, call her madam and to stand when she walked into a room.
He asked Ndou if these statements were true and Ndou said it may have happened after he left, but this was the first he had heard of it. He added that the public protector was usually addressed as “PP,” and that he had never heard of anyone bowing down to Mkhwebane.
As for people rising when Mkhwebane entered the room, Ndou said it was not unusual and had also happened during the time of former PP Thuli Madonsela.
This last statement led to a light-hearted moment at the hearings when committee chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi joked that when he entered the chamber after the lunch break everyone should rise and Mpofu said he would teach everyone how to bow down.