The parliamentary ad hoc committee to select a new public protector showed us how efficiently parliamentary committees could, and should be run – making the members our heroes for the week. They deliberated robustly and sometimes heatedly, but in the end professionalism and reason were the order of the day and South Africans were treated to a showcase of democracy at work.
Public protector hopeful Busisiwe Mkhwebane was selected yesterday in a transparent, publicly accessible process, as the best candidate to take over from current public protector Thuli Madonsela, whose term of office ends in mid-October. In her interview, Mkhwebane showed herself to be competent, educated and experienced. She promised that all her dealings would be transparent, should she make the cut.
Our hero of the week is a quick-thinking car guard who refused a substantial bribe offered by car thieves, and contrived to set the crooks up for arrest by police. For his honesty and indefatigable sense of right and wrong, we make Tshepo Molaoele our hero for this week.
Corruption Watch and the Right2Know Campaign are preparing to challenge the findings of the Seriti Commission in court. The organisations will challenge the commission’s findings of no corruption in the North Gauteng High Court, aiming to have the outcome set aside on the basis that the commission failed to carry out its mandate.
Corruption Watch is making submissions today in the Constitutional Court, as amicus curiae in the matter between the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals vs the minister of justice and constitutional development and the national director of public prosecutions. The organisation’s submissions focus on the right of juristic persons to bring private prosecutions against perpetrators of corrupt activities, and the impact such a right would have on the fight against corruption..
The process to appoint a new public protector has thus far been a remarkable one. We may still find ourselves with a public protector that no one outside the ruling party would support but, by conducting hearings, with the full involvement of civil society organisations such as Corruption Watch, the political cost of this kind of appointment is decreased significantly.
In the build-up to the appointment of our new public protector, we have engaged the services of that irreverent puppet Chester Missing for a series titled Puppet vs Protector. In his inimitable style, Chester conducts short interviews with all of the candidates as well as the chairperson of the parliamentary ad hoc committee tasked with selecting Thuli Madonsela’s successor.
The interviews of all 14 short-listed candidates for the post of public protector have been concluded by the Parliamentary ad hoc committee. The public can still have their say via our online voting tool, where people can indicate which is their preferred candidates.
Integrity, leadership and a judge or practising attorney – these are the qualities and characteristics that respondents to our public protector persona survey have rated most highly.