Award-winning columnist, Bhekisisa Mncube, is head over heels for our Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, and he argues that she is the most misunderstood fighter for social justice.

Mr President, let me let you in on a state secret. I have fallen head over heels for our beleaguered Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

I love her so much that I wish I wasn’t married. I hope my wife doesn’t read this. Busi has that mischievous smile on her face, and my guess is that it says I have read all the CR17’s funding records now sealed by a court injunction.

I profess my love for her in the vain hope that you, Mr President, will keep your presidential hands off my mabhebeza. In case you forget, Mr President, you’re already conflicted because Busi found against you in the Bosasa debacle and CR17 funding thingy mojito.

Thus, when her fitness to hold office matter comes before the ANC national executive committee, you must recuse yourself, as should half of the NEC (including ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule). At the appropriate time, members of the ANC parliamentary caucus (half of them) must do likewise. You lot are conflicted.

Mr President, you ought to know that Busi is the most misunderstood fighter for social justice, especially for the underdogs such as the Guptas.

Her alleged soft stance on Ace is no sign of incompetence; that’s what friends are for. It is of no consequence that some judges have used all sorts of impolite words to describe Busi’s alleged legal illiteracy and incompetence.

Some of the comments coming from the bench, such as, “she tells falsehoods under oath; she doesn’t understand the bounds of her powers; her explanations are incoherent and contradictory”, beggar belief.

I think the judges have no clue as to what they are up against. For starters, the whole legal competence thingy is overrated. It is style (art) over substance that matters most.

To make matters worse, the independent panel appointed by Parliament has further muddied the water by kicking Busi in the nether regions.

In a report, the panel found prima facie evidence of incompetence and misconduct on her part and recommended that she be removed. Bollocks!

What if when Busi’s lecturers covered the courses such as Interpretation of Statutes, Administrative Law and Introduction to Law, she might have missed them due to ill health or related varsity truancy? Gee! In this country a woman is even chastised for missing varsity classes!

In all honesty, the whole Busi vs Parliament thingy has all the hallmarks of a witch-hunt, using all manner of legal jargon to mask the real purpose of protecting the White Monopoly Capital that funded the CR17’s ANC campaign.

My Busi has had a stellar career as an “analyst”, a euphemism for super-spy (if you’re a DA politician) in the country’s intelligence services.

My advo has dedicated all her working life to defend our governors, country and inhabitants, including the Vrede community in the Free State.

Instead of hounding Busi out of the Public Protector’s office, we should award her the Order of Ikhamanga in Gold for her outstanding service in the field of literature, mostly flash fiction.

The so-called Public Protector’s Investigative Reports and the contentious remedial actions are, to the uninitiated, a fine work of art. As a “spy”, Busi is a master of disguise like that.

Her work of art is presented in legal jargon that few of you mere mortals can comprehend.

My mabhebeza is ahead of her time. She deserves a break from the pack instinct of those who ply their trade under the (dis)honourable title of the official opposition, the DA, and other vultures who are circling her office and baying for blood.

Some prima donna columnists with no less than a secondary education behind them find it opportune to join the bandwagon and scribble notes demonising “our” public protector as “dishonest and a scheming ignoramus”.

Allegedly, she is unfazed by the humiliation. Not true. I know it hurts to be the butt of jokes, I was bullied as a child. Hence I have a nifty solution.

I think Busi is better off becoming a counsel for Ace, than to carry the burden of public office as uBabes wama remedial actions. As a counsel for the Free State’s finest son, uBaba’s protégé, the secretary of all secretaries, she would have a better chance of making news headlines for all the right reasons, while dancing with that windbag Carl Niehaus.

With all my love to Busi.

Till next week my man. “Send me.”

• This Letter to Mahlamba Ndlopfu is written by Bhekisisa Mncube a former senior Witness political journalist, the 2020 regional winner in the Opinion category of the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award, and author of The Love Diary of a Zulu Boy, a memoir. • This opinion piece was first