27 June 2019

The South African Communist Party has not received any inquiry from the incumbent Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, either asking for clarification or saying anything on what the First Deputy General Secretary of the Party, Cde Solly Mapaila, indeed said regarding the Party’s position on the Public Protector. The SACP will deal with the substance of the matter as and when Mkhwebane approaches the Party, save for the following.

As Mapaila said when addressing the Nehawu National Policy Conference in Boksburg on Wednesday, 26 June 2019, the Communist Party was the first political organisation that was banned in this country and deprived of the right to freedom of speech and other freedoms that we fought hard for, and which are, as a result, now enshrined in our country's Constitution. The SACP will not allow any person to repeat that history by any measure whatsoever. The SACP unwaveringly reiterates its position that no organ of state, including any Chapter 9 institution, is above the law.

Any person entrusted with constitutional authority must be held to account if that person is found by a court of law to have acted in a serious manner unconstitutionally and unlawfully in the exercise of that authority. The incumbent Public Protector is absolutely no exception. As a state organ created to support our constitutional democracy, the Public Protector was established to ensure that those who are entrusted with state authority uphold rather than violate the Constitution and other law of the Republic.

The SACP therefore further reiterates its call for Parliament to hold an inquiry into her fitness to hold office. The Party will not allow any threat to reverse this important decision.

ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY | SACP

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