Madonsela is caught in political crossfire

of sending provisional reports to the affected parties and complainants.

Madonsela stressed that the provisional report was confidential.

The final report would be made public once comments had been received from all parties, and considered.

Madonsela was caught in the crossfire this week as a row blazed over what should become of her Nkandla report.

The ANC turned up the heat on her as she prepared to hand a provisional report on the investigation to relevant parties, including the Presidency and the complainant, DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko.

ANC chief whip Stone Sizani slammed Madonsela for “subtly” seeking to “try the president and his executive in a court of public opinion”.

He claimed she hadn’t approached Parliament, or asked for a legislative intervention.

But Madonsela said that her report of 2010/11, which dealt with Zuma’s failure to declare his interests on time, had done just that – and the proposed changes to the legislation had yet to be finalised.

At a round-table meeting between institutions supporting democracy, and the Speaker and senior officials of Parlia- ment on Wednesday, Madonsela said her office’s relationship with Parliament had been “an area of confusion”.

Referring to a proposed “communication protocol” to guide the interaction between the institutions and Parliament, Madonsela said “an instrument that sets everything clear” would leave “less opportunity for drama”.

On Thursday, a committee established to consider Madon- sela’s report on the Independent Electoral Commission’s ( IEC) acquisition of a new headquarters rejected her request for the matter, including IEC chairwoman Pansy Tlakula’s public comments on her report, to be referred to the Electoral Court on the grounds it would be “unlawful and/or unconstitutional” to do so.

MPs on the committee agreed there was a gap in the legislation that left open the question of what should happen when one Chapter 9 institution, like the public protector, investigated another, like the IEC.

DA MP James Selfe, who codrafted the committee’s report on the matter, said yesterday he sympathised with Madonsela’s difficulty regarding her referral of reports to Parliament.

Unlike with the auditor-general, where there was an established process for reports, the procedure for reports of other Chapter 9 institutions was “a bit vague”.

Selfe said yesterday Parliament had “a lot of work to do”. “It’s good that this issue came to Parliament, it’s good that it highlighted the unsatisfactory nature of the legal framework within which we have to operate. I hope that what’s going to happen is it’s going to concentrate Parliament’s mind about systematising the way that we deal with these reports,” he said.

The DA had been calling for a portfolio committee to be established to do this.

craig.dodds@inl.co.za