The Section 194 Committee inquiry into Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane's fitness to hold office lost another day of testimony yesterday when a witness refused to testify after he received an intimidating text message.

News24 reports Public Protector chief investigator Rodney Mataboge started his testimony on Tuesday after expressing concern about testifying publicly.

After his testimony, he received a threatening text message from a Mokgele Mojaki, and this was brought to the committee's attention on Tuesday evening.

At the start of yesterday's meeting, the committee's legal adviser, Fatima Ebrahim, advised the committee to attend to the matter behind closed doors. Committee chair Qubudile Dyantyi said they decided to contact Mojaki, to ask that he put his complaints in writing and desist from interacting with the witness.

He said the text message had nothing to do with what Mataboge testified about on Tuesday as it related to another case he had worked on.

Dyantyi said Mataboge's testimony didn’t meet the criteria for an in-camera hearing in terms of Parliament's rules.

He said the committee would ask the Office of the Public Protector to ‘do what it must do to protect Mr Mataboge’.

Mataboge indicated that he would seek legal advice because he intended not to proceed with his testimony. Dyantyi said the committee would, therefore, subpoenae Mataboge to appear today and tomorrow, as scheduled.

In 2017, the Public Protector issued a report with adverse findings against Mojaki, who was, at the time, the municipal manager for Ngaka Modiri Molema municipality in the North West.

The report followed an investigation into the alleged maladministration, corruption, nepotism, fruitless and wasteful expenditure and purging of staff by Mojaki.

Full News24 report

See also full Cape Argus report