Former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane found a political home in the party whose leader once called her "a puppet from Gupta's kitchen" – the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

At a media briefing that started an hour late on Monday at Bhusak Car Wash in Kwaggafontein, the Mpumalanga town where Mkhwebane grew up, EFF MP Reneiloe Mashabela welcomed Mkhwebane to the party.

"This is your new home," she said.

After placing the quintessentially EFF red beret on her head, Mkhwebane read the party's membership pledge.

Last month, Mkhwebane became the first head of a Chapter 9 institution to be removed from her post after protracted parliamentary impeachment proceedings that culminated in serious findings against Mkhwebane.

The Section 194 Committee – that conducted the impeachment inquiry – made a variety of findings of misconduct and incompetence related to some of Mkhwebane's politically explosive investigations, including the SARS investigative unit and the CR17/Bosasa matters; specifically that Mkhwebane did not display impartiality and independence, and entered the investigations with a predetermined outcome in mind.

The deputy leader of the party Mkhwebane now joined, Floyd Shivambu, was the co-complainant in both these complaints.

Mkhwebane said during her seven years as Public Protector, she didn't belong to any political party, as the post requires political non-partisanship.

"This is my first political home," she said. "And I am here to learn and to continue to protect the South Africans. This is my political home now. I'll be learning the ropes from my colleagues and my fellow commissars and fighters so that we can continue to protect the poor and the marginalised," she said.

Mkhwebane said several political parties approached her, but she could relate to the EFF's seven cardinal pillars.

"I joined the EFF because our people are landless, and the EFF is saying they would make sure they would expropriate the land without compensation.

"I joined EFF because I believe in the fact that the State should be creating an enabling environment for the poor and the marginalised, especially on issues of economy and should be owning the economic structures that are there, the banks, the insurance companies and everything and as well the issue of the health system which is not benefitting the poor and the marginalised.

"Education should be free."

Mkhwebane also stuck to her guns that the South African Reserve Bank's mandate should be amended. 

She prescribed such a remedial action – the wording of which she obtained from the State Security Agency – which was later scathingly overturned by the courts. The judgment formed part of the charges against her in her impeachment.

"Hence, as the Public Protector, I said I would protect the poor and the marginalised, and this is giving me the opportunity to continue doing that."

Mkhwebane said she didn't join the EFF for a position. "I was dealt with harshly by the ANC and DA and at the end of the day I could stand this treatment to expose them and make sure that they are not there for the poor and the marginalised."

She said she would go wherever the EFF sends her, and she didn't join the EFF because she was disgruntled about her impeachment. 

"At my age, I wish to still serve, hence I decided to do this."

"I'm an expert in good governance. I'm an expert in service delivery," Mkhwebane claimed.

While the EFF supported the SSA analyst at the time's appointment in October 2016, hardly a few months later the relationship soured to the extent that EFF leader Julius Malema said the following at a media briefing in January 2017: "We just took a puppet from Gupta's kitchen and said let's give her a chance."

Consistent in their inconsistency, the EFF soon warmed to Mkhwebane. The EFF had Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan in its crosshairs as its agenda started to increasingly merge with the radical economic transformation (RET) faction.

In November 2018, Shivambu laid a complaint against Gordhan about the South African Revenue Service's investigative unit, which was established during Gordhan's time as SARS commissioner.

This followed a month after another anonymous complainant. In a shoddy investigation, Mkhwebane revived the then discredited "rogue unit" narrative which only the EFF seemed to cling to, to make serious findings against Gordhan.

Included in her investigation was a classified report by the Inspector General of Intelligence (IGI), since discredited, which, according to her, was dropped off anonymously at her office, and which was not legally in her possession.

Shivambu provided the report to a Public Protector staff member, who upon realising its classification discarded it, the committee heard.

In December 2017, Cyril Ramaphosa was elected president of the ANC, pipping Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who was favoured by the outgoing Jacob Zuma and his cohorts, to the post. This proved to be a bitter defeat for the RET-grouping, with murmurs about the election having been bought abounding.

In November 2018, Ramaphosa bungled his answer to then DA-leader Mmusi Maimane's question in the National Assembly about a R500 000 donation from deceased Bosasa boss Gavin Watson. 

Maimane and Shivambu laid complaints with the Public Protector.

In her CR17 report, Mkhwebane wrongly found that Ramaphosa had violated the Executive Ethics Code, by mistakenly stating that a payment made to his election campaign by corruption-accused Watson was for consultancy work done by Ramaphosa's son Andile.

The code makes it an offence to deliberately mislead the National Assembly.

The courts set aside Mkhwebane's report in another scathing ruling, which included findings of bias against her.

When she appeared before the committee, Mkhwebane refused to accept the Constitutional Court's invalidation of her CR17 report and its majority finding that she had deliberately altered the words of the Executive Ethics Code to make unjustified findings of dishonesty against Ramaphosa. She insisted that the country's highest court had "made a mistake" with that finding.

The inquiry also heard evidence that Mkhwebane had, without providing any evidence, said Gordhan was behind attempts to remove her, and staff in her office in correspondence referred to Gordhan as "Jamnadas" - his middle name which the EFF uses as a slur against him.

Email evidence also reveals Mkhwebane's attorney, Theo Seanego, advocated for her lawyers to align their legal strategies in response to Gordhan's challenges to her reports with the EFF.

Public Protector legal services manager Neels van der Merwe told the committee Mkhwebane, shortly after her appointment to the office, wanted him to look into the SA Reserve Bank's mandate, and the constitutional amendments to enable expropriation without compensation.

While expropriation without compensation and the nationalisation of the SA Reserve Bank are among the EFF's "non-negotiable" policy pillars, and are favoured RET talking points, it is unclear how it falls within the mandate of the Office of the Public Protector.

Mkhwebane's unsuccessful defence against impeachment was led by former EFF national chairperson Dali Mpofu, who has also represented her in other litigation.

The EFF were staunch supporters of Mkhwebane during the impeachment proceedings, often amplifying her calls for postponements and applications for recusal of committee chairperson, ANC MP Qubudile Dyantyi and the evidence leaders.

Mkhwebane isn’t the only person who the EFF once disparaged, and is now wearing a red beret. Earlier this year Jacob Zuma Foundation spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi left the ATM to join the EFF, who called him a Gupta "stooge" in 2017. He is now an EFF MP.