ADV. BUSISIWE MKHWEBANE ACQUITTED OF ALL CHARGES
By Busisiwe Mkhwebane Foundation
The Busisiwe Mkhwebane Foundation welcomes the acquittal of its Patron, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, on the criminal charges that have followed her for years.
Today marks a significant moment in a long and difficult legal chapter.
The perjury matter arose from the controversy surrounding her investigation into the Absa/Bankorp matter.
In August 2026, the State withdrew the principal charge.
The remaining proceedings were postponed to 30 September 2026.
Today that criminal chapter has ended with her acquittal.
For Advocate Mkhwebane, this has never been only about a courtroom.
It has been about a principle: whether those entrusted with public power can challenge powerful interests without being destroyed for doing so.
The same Absa/Bankorp controversy was one of the charges placed before Parliament’s Section 194 Committee.
That process culminated in her removal from the Office of the Public Protector in 2023.
The criminal case now concluded was therefore not a separate episode.
It was part of a chain that ran from investigation, to court review, to impeachment, to prosecution.
She was also clobbered with personal costs by the Constitutional Court in that same matter. In July 2019, a majority judgment penned by Justices Sisi Khampepe and Leona Theron upheld a punitive personal costs order against her arising from the Absa/Bankorp litigation.
She was ordered to pay, from her own pocket, a portion of the costs on a punitive scale. That order inflicted real financial hardship.
It remains part of the public record. It does not alter what a criminal court has now determined: the criminal allegations against her have failed.
Throughout years of intense public controversy, legal battles, parliamentary proceedings and relentless media scrutiny, Advocate Mkhwebane has maintained that she was acting in pursuit of accountability and the interests of ordinary South Africans.
She has faced fierce criticism and public condemnation. She was removed from office. She was taken to court.
She was made to pay personally. Yet she did not abandon her principles.
She did not retreat from the communities whose voices are too often ignored. She did not abandon the vulnerable.
And she did not abandon the struggle for justice.
“I SHALL GO TO THE KING…”
In her first media briefing as Public Protector, Advocate Mkhwebane famously invoked the biblical words: “I shall go to the King; and if I perish, I perish.”
Those words have come to define a remarkable chapter of her public life.
Not as a declaration of defeat, but as a declaration that principle is worth defending even when the personal cost is enormous.
The Foundation believes that the events surrounding the Absa/Bankorp investigation must continue to be understood within the broader constitutional debate about accountability, public institutions, corporate power, and the protection of those who challenge concentrated economic and political interests.
The courts previously criticised aspects of her conduct in the Absa/Bankorp litigation, including findings concerning her affidavits and the manner in which the investigation was conducted.
Those findings remain part of the public record. But criminal allegations must be tested in a criminal court, against evidence and according to the law.
Today, that test has ended in acquittal.
THE ATTEMPTS TO BREAK HER DID NOT BREAK HER
Over the years, Advocate Mkhwebane has endured what the Foundation regards as an extraordinary campaign of political, institutional, legal and media pressure.
She has endured relentless public vilification; an impeachment and removal process in which the Absa/Bankorp issue featured among the charges; prolonged criminal proceedings; battles concerning her professional standing; financial and personal hardship, including the Constitutional Court’s personal costs order in the Khampepe and Theron judgment; and years of litigation connected to decisions she took while serving as Public Protector.
Yet she remained standing.
They could challenge her. They could investigate her.
They could take her to court. They could impose personal costs.
They could attempt to silence her.
They could not make her surrender her principles.
A WOMAN WHO DARED TO CHALLENGE POWER
The Foundation rejects the idea that the powerful should be beyond scrutiny.
The Absa/Bankorp matter became one of the most consequential controversies of her tenure. Her investigation raised questions surrounding an apartheid-era Reserve Bank loan to Bankorp, later absorbed into Absa.
The matter generated extensive litigation and remains an important part of South Africa’s institutional history.
The Foundation will continue to defend the constitutional principle that no institution, corporation, political formation or individual should be above accountability.
Allegations of political coordination or improper influence are serious matters that must be supported by evidence rather than assumption.
The Foundation therefore calls for continued transparency and scrutiny of every institution involved in matters concerning Advocate Mkhwebane.
A TRUE GIANT OF OUR RECENT HISTORY
Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane is not merely the Patron of the BM Foundation. She represents a generation of South Africans who believe that justice must mean something to the person standing at the bottom of society not only to those with wealth, influence and powerful connections.
Today, through the BM Foundation, she continues to champion vulnerable communities and pursue justice where ordinary people often struggle to make their voices heard.
Her journey has demonstrated one thing above all: you can be wounded without being defeated.
You can be attacked without surrendering. You can be isolated without abandoning your cause.
And sometimes history only recognises the courage of those who stood firm before history caught up with them.
IF I PERISH, I PERISH
Today, the Busisiwe Mkhwebane Foundation salutes its Patron.
A woman who stood in the storm. A woman who refused to bend simply because bending was easier.
A woman who continued to believe that justice belongs to everyone.
ADVOCATE BUSISIWE MKHWEBANE — A TRUE QUEEN.
THE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE CONTINUES
