The Public Protector’s office was reportedly involved in an embarrassing mixup after a subpoena was sent to the wrong bank.
Mail & Guardian is reporting that a subpoena meant for FNB was actually sent to Absa.
To make matters worse, an email follow-up from Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s office to Absa never reached Absa – all because of a missing letter in the email address.
Absa sent an email to Mkhwebane’s office to ask for the correct subpoena because it would have been “irregular” to comply based on the wrong one.
However, that email similarly never reached her office because of a missing letter in the email address.
In the end, Mkhwebane concluded that Absa was uncooperative and obtained the CR17 bank records from the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC).
Mkhwebane issued the subpoena as part of her investigation into CR17 campaign fundraising.
She has since released the report, which President Cyril Ramaphosa has taken on judicial review.
The comedy of errors has apparently led the president’s legal team to question whether Mkhwebane obtained the bank records lawfully or not.