When South Africa bid farewell to Thuli Madonsela, we all feared the worst about her successor, Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

Given that we already knew how deep the Gupta fingers were stuck into our pie, many feared the new Public Protector (PP) was going to be a puppet who further assisted with the State Capture efforts.

The DA raised their concerns ahead of her appointment, actively opposing her nomination (HERE), but in the end the support of the ANC and the EFF was enough to see her through.

Her road has thus far had its ups and downs, but it’s this week’s announcement ordering Parliament to change the Constitution that has been the most alarming.

[Unless you’re Absa, who were ordered to pay back R1,2 billion to the South African Reserve Bank for bailouts received during apartheid.

You can see Absa’s reaction to that ruling HERE, but let’s talk more about that changing of the Constitution.]

This below from the Mail & Guardian:

Mkhwebane ordered Parliament to change the Constitution, with wording she drafted unilaterally, to remove the Reserve Bank’s mandate to keep inflation under control.

Just what possessed Mkhwebane to order a change in direct opposition to economic orthodoxy, shocking everyone from the ANC to ratings agencies, is not clear. In the time during which she changed her mind she had only two meetings on the issue. One was with the department of state security. The other was with Stephen Goodson, a former Reserve Bank director, Holocaust denier and collaborator with the Gupta-linked Black First Land First fringe group…

Mkhwebane’s report on an Absa bailout, released on Monday, confirms that meeting…The report discloses no meetings with economists, central bankers or constitutional experts. Nor is there any evidence that Mkhwebane consulted the Reserve Bank, Parliament or any other body about her proposed change.

So before making this monumental decision in Parliament, Mkhwebane only had two meetings about it. Huh?

And it’s clear she is a big fan of Goodson’s, having said that his book, A History of Central Banking (and the Enslavement of Mankind), is a “must-read”.

Let’s focus on Stephen Goodson, because if you’re calling someone something as a serious as a Holocaust denier you need some ammo:

As the M&G first revealed in 2012, Goodson [below], then a director of the Reserve Bank, considers the Holocaust to be a lie told in service of a largely Jewish global banking community.

“Of course, the principle is to extract enormous sums of money from the Germans as compensation. They [international bankers] tarnished that whole period as being one of great evil in order to keep you blind to what is possible,” he said in a 2010 interview.

He has also expressed his belief that international bankers financed the war against Adolf Hitler because his admirable model of state capitalism threatened their hegemony.

Yeah, sure sounds like the kind of guy you want the PP taking inspiration from. Oh, and of course he has that Gupta connection:

In January, three months before his meeting with Mkwebane, Goodson appeared as a panelist at a Black First Land First event, at the invitation of its convenor Andile Mngxitama, to speak about the banking bailout at the heart of this week’s report.

“The ANC government is in the pocket of the bankers,” Goodson said at the event. “It is the bankers who rule this country.”

If, through central bank reform, the power of this banking “enemy” could be broken, South Africa would have “all the development funds we need and extra”, Goodson said.

We all know that Andile Mngxitama is backed by that crazy Gupta money, but that doesn’t bother our PP in the slightest:

On Monday, Mkwebane said she had sent her report to Black First Land First under rules that allow her to inform anyone she chooses about her findings. She did not extend similar courtesy to the likes of former President Thabo Mbeki, who is cited extensively in the report, or former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni, who stands implicated as having failed in his duties there.

Given that the #GuptaLeaks emails expose the dirty workings of State Capture on the daily it’s tough to muster the energy to get upset, but this is the person tasked with “the investigation of misconduct in any state affairs and all spheres of government”, established to “support constitutional democracy in the country”.

And she is now captured.

Just ask the Daily Maverick, who ran the headline “Busisiwe Mkhwebane cannot be trusted“:

If one were to be charitable one could say that she does not have a full grasp of the law or the powers of her office. But even being charitable would in this case be a rather scathing indictment on her competence. It is strange that Mkhwebane would make such a dramatic foray into an economic policy matter on her own and pluck this specific recommendation out of thin air. There is too much information in the public domain that provides proof that there is a sustained attack on our democratic institutions from both within and outside of government and the ANC.

…for the Public Protector to dramatically recommend as drastic a step as the amendment of the Constitution, it does make one wonder whose side she is on and whether she is “taking instructions” from elsewhere. Given what we know about most of the Cabinet, including the President, and their deference to Dubai, it is a reasonable question to ask.

…She seems to have hesitatingly agreed to investigate the #Guptaleaks emails but not without the caveat that her office lacks the resources and so will probably not be able to do a complete job. Well, that did not stop her predecessor, Thuli Madonsela. How we miss Madonsela’s integrity and her unflinching ability to speak truth to power.

The EFF has said that it regrets supporting Mkhwebane’s appointment. There were many (this writer included) who gave Mkhwebane the benefit of the doubt when she was appointed. But the time for that is over. With her inexplicable decision to stray beyond her mandate, we can reasonably ask whether Mkhwebane herself is not “captured”? She needs to prove otherwise in the months and years ahead.

I fear that we have all the proof we need, really. She’ll make some minor calls masquerading as acting in the public’s interest, but behind closed doors, those who really run the show will tug on her puppet strings and make her dance as they please.

It isn’t my style to tell you what you should be angry about, because you have your own thing going on, but this one really stings.

[sources:mg&dailymav]