Under a headline that shouts ‘Cyril caves in after PP’s legal note’, The Sunday Independent claims the President Ramaphosa has extended an olive branch to embattled Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane by agreeing not to go ahead with his intention to suspend her, at least until the end of April.

As previously reported, Ramaphosa sent a letter to Mkhwebane last week, giving her 10 days to explain why he shouldn’t suspend her in light of the pending parliamentary inquiry into her fitness to hold office.

Mkhwebane, through her lawyers, responded by advising him that if he went ahead with the intended suspension, it would be ‘illegal and inappropriate’.

In a letter sent to Mkhwebane's legal team on Friday, reports The Sunday Independent, the State Attorney, on behalf of Ramaphosa, informed the Public Protector’s lawyers that ‘the President will provide your client with an undertaking not to decide the question of a suspension until 26 April 2022’.

The letter added that ‘the undertaking is given on the express basis that it applies only until 26 April 2022 and that if the matter does not proceed on 25/26 April 2022 for any reason, the undertaking shall lapse’.

The State Attorney told Mkhwebane that Ramaphosa had noted her position on a Parliament committee sitting scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday), ‘which may do away with the need for the intended application’.

The Public Protector has warned the President to step away from the process because of his ‘reasonable perceived conflict of interest’, as he was ‘personally heavily and multiply (sic) conflicted’.

This, she argued, stemmed from several investigations she was conducting, including allegations that he breached ethics and violated the Constitution. On one front, Mkhwebane is investigating Ramaphosa following his apparent admission that state funds were misused for ANC internal campaigns.

In a leaked recording of an ANC NEC meeting, Ramaphosa is heard saying that he is prepared to fall on his sword rather than reveal the names of people misusing public funds for the ruling party’s political activities.

However, Ramaphosa, when appearing before Parliament’s Scopa, said he had relied on public information when he claimed the ANC abused state funds.

The Sunday Independent notes that in January it reported that she would be interviewing people who attended that meeting, including suspended secretary-general Ace Magashule, MP Bongani Bongo, and former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni – all members of the ANC's RET faction seeking to bring down Ramaphosa – to ask them to submit affidavits to help with her investigation.

The Sunday Independent explains the choice of the witnesses thus: Magashule’s interview stemmed from being the custodian of the ANC’s record of all official meetings before he was suspended. Bongo’s affidavit was needed because the President mentioned that money was also misused from the State Security Agency, where he was Minister after David Mahlobo.

The President was reportedly responding to Yengeni in the leaked recording.

Full report in The Sunday Independent