By Raahil Sain
02:06:2022

Public Protector Busiswe Mkhwebane called on the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) and the Hawks to investigate a matter after her office’s preliminary investigations revealed 18 calls exchanged between consultant Ismail Abramjee and a phone number registered under the name Narandran Kollapen.

Earlier this month, the ConCourt dismissed Mkhwebane’s application for a rescission of its ruling that all but one of the parliamentary rules governing a long-awaited inquiry into her fitness to hold office were lawful.

Mkhwebane argued that the inquiry should not proceed until investigations into Abramjee’s text to Parliament’s advocate Andrew Breitenbach SC were finalised.

The 18 calls were reportedly exchanged between 4 January 2022 and 22 April 2022, two days before Adv. Andrew Breitenbach SC received the controversial SMS.

Speaking on Radio Islam, Judges Matter researcher Mbekezeli Benjamin said that when the calls were made, Kollapen was a member of a foundation of which Abramjee was a spokesperson.

“So you can imagine people who work together in that context would ordinarily have several calls over three months,” Benjamin said.

Benjamin said there was a lot of unclear information, and Kollapen was yet to give his version.

“There are quite a number of questions that the preliminary report by the Public Protector still raises. We are still not clear on a number of issues,” he said.

Meanwhile, Benjamin added that the Chief Justice has committed to investigating the matter.

“The Chief Justice would have an opportunity to speak to the judge to find out what happened on his side.”

Benjamin said several issues needed to be clarified.

“Ordinarily, it’s not a good thing communication made to a third party from the court.”

“The law is clear that judges may not communicate any information they have received through their judicial role to a third party; any communication must be done through proper channels.”

“I think that is the one concern, but like I said, we don’t know what transpired, and we will have to wait for the Chief Justice’s report”, he said.

[LISTEN] to the podcast here