Speaker of the National Assembly Ms Baleka Mbete on Friday filed an affidavit supporting the South African Reserve Bank’s application on the Public Protector’s findings and report.

The Speaker also asks the Gauteng High Court to allow her and the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services Dr Mathole Motshekga to act as applicants in the case.

Key elements of the Speaker’s affidavit (attached) are that the Public Protector’s order is unconstitutional, is not a remedy, encroaches on Parliament’s exclusive domain, is undemocratic, negates section 74 of the Constitution which sets out the special requirements for amending the Constitution and her amendment perverts the separation of powers.

In addition to the remedial action set out in the Public Protector’s order and the precise wording posited as a replacement for the current section 224 of the Constitution, the Public Protector added that the Reserve Bank and the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee must submit an action plan within 60 days on their implementation of her order.

The effect of the Public Protector’s amendment would be to remove the primary object of the Reserve Bank to protect the value of the currency. This function is not allocated to anyone else and leaves the currency unprotected. The order to amend the Constitution to strip the Reserve Bank of its primary function of protecting the value of the currency is also entirely unrelated to the improper conduct that she found to have been committed.

The order is unconstitutional because it is beyond the scope of the Public Protector’s mandate. This is strictly confined to the parameters set by the Constitution, of which she is a creation and from which she derives her remedial powers. It encroaches on Parliament’s exclusive domain – the enactment of national legislation – and the Public Protector does not have the power to prescribe to Parliament how to exercise its legislative powers.

This would be so even if the Public Protector intended no more than to order the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee to introduce a motion for amending the Constitution - because that is also an exclusive function of Parliament.

The order is also undemocratic and profoundly contrary to the values of democratic government, accountability, responsiveness and openness and negates the special requirements to amend the Constitution. The purpose of these, contained in section 74 of the Constitution, is to ensure that Members of Parliament when considering an amendment to the Constitution do so with the benefit of wide public input.

 

Issued by Parliament of the Republic of South Africa