The Section 194 inquiry into Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane's fitness for office heard more evidence on Thursday that showed that she shielded Ace Magashule and Mosebenzi Zwane from scrutiny over the Gupta-linked Vrede dairy farm project.

Former Public Protector investigator, advocate Nditsheni Raedani, testified that he was part of a task team probing the Vrede matter. The investigation began under Mkhwebane's predecessor, Thuli Madonsela.

He said he was aware of the GuptaLeaks – a tranche of leaked emails detailing the Guptas' and their associates' dealings - from the start of his involvement in the investigation. 

Through his interactions with his supervisor, Reginald Ndou, he was made aware that Mkhwebane didn't want them to look into the GuptaLeaks.

"The Public Protector doesn't want the Gupta emails in the investigation," he said he was told.

Furthermore, the investigation uncovered enough evidence to implicate Magashule, who was the Free State premier at the time, and Zwane, who was the agriculture MEC at the time, the committee heard.

"There was sufficient evidence to justify findings of maladministration against the premier and the MEC. I recall such findings being in at least one version of the draft report that I saw, although I cannot now recall which one."

But the findings never made it into the final report.

Raedani said Mkhwebane had the final say on what went into the final report and what didn't.

He testified that he and fellow investigator, Tebogo Kekana – an earlier witness – were called to a meeting with Mkhwebane. She expressed her unhappiness over the Vrede report, said it did not reflect her instructions and gave them a new set of instructions on how the report should be amended.

Raedani's affidavit to the committee also revealed how the final draft of the report came about.

"I was informed by the PP that we would be finalising the draft report. Using my laptop, the report was projected onto a screen, and we went through it paragraph by paragraph. The PP would dictate to me what she wanted me to type. Towards the end, the PP took my laptop and typed herself.

"I did not agree with the changes the PP was effecting. I am not the sort of person who just takes instructions, so I cautioned the PP as to what legal commentators would say about the final report, and warned her that her changes would cause trouble."

"However, it was quite clear that the PP had made up her mind as to what was going into the report, no matter how significant and unreasonable a departure it was from the conclusions in the previous iterations of the report and the evidence that had been discovered," the affidavit continued.

It continued: "It was in response to my concerns that the PP said 'anginandaba' (which loosely translates to: 'I don't care at all')."

The report was eventually reviewed and set aside by the courts, and the Portfolio Committee on Justice also had questions.

So, another investigation into Vrede followed in 2018, which looked into Magashule and Zwane.

Initially, Raedani was also involved in the investigation. He said he, Mkhwebane and another Public Protector official went to interview Magashule. He didn't get to ask his Magashule questions because Mkhwebane did most of the talking, which meant he didn't get the required answers.

After about 30 minutes, Mkhwebane asked him and the other official to leave so that she could "have a constructive discussion with the SG (secretary-general)".

Magashule has since been suspended as the ANC's secretary-general.

Raedani said he was "not privy" to what Mkhwebane and Magashule discussed. That part of the meeting was not recorded.

It was Raedani's last involvement in the investigation before it was reassigned to other investigators.

Raedani's evidence also includes a paper trail of the changes that were made to the reports.

He testified that he had not had any quarrel with Mkhwebane and that he left the Office of the Public Protector later in 2018 to pursue a legal career without any disciplinary proceedings against him at the time.

Raedani's cross-examination by Mkhwebane's counsel, Dali Mpofu, SC, continued on Thursday afternoon.