Candidates willing, but are they able?

THE search is on in earnest for a new public protector to fill Thuli Madonsela’s shoes. This week, 14 shortlisted candidates were subjected to gruelling interviews in a day-and-night session in parliament to see whether any of them are fit and proper candidates to fill this most vital of posts.

The problem, though — if one can describe it as such — is that Madonsela has raised the bar so high during her tenure that almost any potential successor appears, by comparison, to be quite ordinary, even flawed.

Madonsela’s dogged pursuit of the wrongdoers in the planning and building of upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead is just one of the highlights of her time in office. And while a less courageous person might just have completed her investigation and left it at that, Madonsela insisted in a letter to the president that her rulings were binding in terms of the constitution, and were not mere recommendations to be accepted or rejected as the executive chose.

That this week’s hearings were televised live attests to the elevated profile of the public protector’s office, which augurs well for public participation and involvement in public, democratic life.

Viewed from another angle, though, the high level of interest in who will be our next public protector speaks damning volumes about the very low level of trust in our public representatives, and a widespread perception that our politicians dare not be trusted to safeguard the public purse or conduct themselves in a manner befitting a government that claims to serve the interests of the poor. That, strictly speaking, is not the case.

On the face of it, the candidates for the post do not exactly inspire unbridled confidence.

On our news pages today we report on, among other things, the strange case of Advocate Mamiki Goodman, née Shai. It is disconcerting that it took probing questions from opposition MPs to reach the truth that Goodman was suspended from the National Gambling Board for apparent interference in tender processes, which is precisely the sort of conduct that a public protector may be called upon to investigate.

And there are other candidates whose records are less than inspiring, besmirched by allegations of, among other things, rape, unpaid debts, being banned from Sun City after an altercation about a stolen cellphone and even appearing to attempt to hide being an ANC member.

If one is to try reading the political wind, it appears an ANC member, Advocate Nonkosi Cetywayo, may be among the frontrunners for the difficult job. Perhaps obviously, as ANC MPs were quick to point out, being an ANC member does not necessarily disqualify one from being the public protector. However, given that the protector does have to spend quite a bit of time pursuing ANC members in top government jobs — not to mention in the Presidency itself — it appears quite a stretch to state, unequivocally, that being an ANC member is a recommendation. The fact that she worked in the service of National Assembly Speaker and ANC national chairwoman Baleka Mbete would appear to be a strong negative factor.

It is absolutely vital that the process be properly handled, and that it delivers a result that is in the interests of all South Africans, and not just the ANC.

Perhaps, like Madonsela herself, the successful candidate will grow into the role, and put narrow interests where they belong. Thus far, though, it hasn’t been an encouraging spectacle.