Busisiwe Mkhwebane

The court also found that Mkhwebane had lied under oath and had acted in bad faith in her investigation. The court assessed some costs of the case personally against Mkhwebane due to her conduct. The personal costs order was later upheld by the Constitutional Court of South Africa in July 2019 amounting to an estimated R900,000. The court's judgment increased public calls to have Mkhwebane removed from office.

In May 2019, Mkhwebane's report into the Vrede Dairy Project was declared unconstitutional and set aside, with the Gauteng High Court finding that the Public Protector had failed in her duties to investigate the project. The Public Protector's office was ordered to pay the costs of the challenge, with some of the costs awarded against Mkhwebane personally.

As public protector Mkhwabane's office released a report stating that former Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan was guilty of "violating the constitution" due to alleged improper conduct regarding the early-retirement payout of a South African Revenue Service (SARS) official. This resulted in Mkhwabane recommending that Presidency a take disciplinary action against Gordhan. Gordhan's legal counsel challenged the Mkhwanbane's finding, Mkhwabane publicly and preemptively denied that it was part of a larger political struggle to target and discredit Gordhan. In July 2019 the Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa ruled that Mkhwebane's recommendation against Gordhan be suspended, pending a judicial review of Mkhwabane's report on the SARS "rogue unit". The judgement stated that a number of Mkhwebane's assertions were "vague, contradictory and/or nonsensical".

On 30 July 2019 the horse racing company Phumelela Gaming and Leisure won a court interdict to prevent Mkhwabane's office from implementing remedial action in the horse racing industry whilst the public protector's report on the matter was under judicial review. The company argued that Mkhwebane's office violated the separation of powers, did not follow a fair process when investigating Phumelela's case and had a large number of both factual and legal material errors. This judgement closely following the Constitutional Court (in the ABSA Bank/SARB case) and the Gauteng High Court (regarding Pravin Gordhan) judgements against Mkhwebane's office was seen in the media as further weakening her position as public protector and adding strength to calls by the Democratic Alliance and civil society to initiate a parliamentary review into her fitness to hold office.

In June 2017, with consultation from former South African Reserve Bank (SARB) director (2003-2012), Stephen Goodson, and without consultation with government economists or legal scholars, Mkhwebane drafted changes to the Constitution to nationalize and remove the independence of the SARB and the bank's mandate to keep inflation under control; she then ordered Parliament to make those changes in the Constitution. The resultant loss of confidence in South Africa's governmental bonds caused the loss of millions of rand. In August 2017 the Reserve Bank won its lawsuit against Mkhwebane and vacated her order as violative of separation of powers with Mkhwebane appealed.

In 2017 Mkhwebane issued a report, the Bankorp-CIEX report, on her investigation into among others, Absa Bank. The Pretoria High Court set aside her order for Absa Bank to refund R1.125-billion to the government for the financial assistance bailout that its predecessor Bankorp Group had received from the former government. The court found that "The public protector did not conduct herself in a manner which would be expected from a person occupying the office of the public protector," it further stated: "She did not have regard thereto that her office requires her to be objective, honest and to deal with matters according to the law and that a higher standard is expected of her."

Busisiwe Mkhwebane is a South African advocate, who has served as the Public Protector since 2016.

In 2014 she returned to South Africa to serve as a director on country information and cooperation management at the Department of Home Affairs. Mkhwebane then worked as an analyst for the State Security Agency from July 2016 to October 2016 before she was appointed Public Protector in October 2016. During her appointment it was made known that she had a close relationship with then President Jacob Zuma.

From 2010 to 2014 she worked as Counselor Immigration and Civic Services in South Africa's embassy in China. A report by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project stated that during this time Mkhwebane's bank account was flagged by HSBC for receiving a US$5000 payment from the Gupta family in connection with a controversial railway contract with China South Rail. Mkhwebane rejected the allegation that she received money from the Gupta family.

In 1994 Mkhwebane joined the Department of Justice as a Public Prosecutor thereafter from 1996 as Legal Administrative Officer in the International Affairs Directorate. In 1998 she joined the South African Human Rights Commission as a senior researcher. The following year she joined the Public Protector's office as senior investigator and acting provincial representative. In 2005 she left to join the Department of Home Affairs as the director for refugee affairs, becoming acting chief director in asylum seekers management in 2009.

Mkhwebane was born in Bethal in Mpumalanga on 2 February 1970, matriculating from Mkhephula Secondary School in 1988. She graduated with a BProc followed by an LLB from the University of the North (now the University of Limpopo). Subsequently, she obtained a diploma in corporate law and a higher diploma in tax from the Rand Afrikaans University (now the University of Johannesburg). In 2010 she completed a Masters in Business Leadership at the University of South Africa.