Protector says office ‘stretched’
CAPACITY constraints are delaying completion of some investigations, says Public Protector Thuli Madonsela. Her office was being stretched to the limit, she said on Tuesday.
CAPE TOWN — Capacity constraints are delaying completion of investigations, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela says. One probe has been taking more than three years with little progress.
Her office was being stretched to the limit, she said on Tuesday, with thousands of complaints from ordinary South Africans in addition to the high-profile investigations such as the R246m spending at President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home, the irregular spending at the public broadcaster SABC and problems in the agriculture department.
Earlier this month Ms Madonsela told Democratic Alliance MP David Maynier she was unable to make much progress after his request that she investigate the palpably illegal sale of sniper rifles to Libya shortly before the revolution there.
“Unfortunately due to capacity constraints not much progress could be made after initial responses to my correspondence,” she said.
Mr Maynier had requested the investigation in February 2011 after the head of the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) Jeff Radebe (now Minister in the Presidency) admitted that the committee had authorised arms trade between South African companies and Libya.
The NCACC Act is explicit in forbidding weapons transfers into
The joint standing committee on defence has the powers necessary to investigate the alleged illegal sale of sniper rifles and ammunition to Libya. But it preferred to stick its head in the sand
unstable or repressive countries. Mr Maynier had asked Ms Madonsela to probe the legality of the transfers.
Ms Madonsela said: “Though my office is currently focusing on dealing with the backlog of cases, particularly on bread and butter issues, I give you my assurance all efforts will be made to bring your matter to finality as soon as possible.”
Mr Maynier responded: “It is deeply frustrating that, after more than three years, not much progress has been made on the investigation into the alleged illegal sale of sniper rifles and ammunition to Libya.
“It’s clear the public protector is swamped and not coping with the limited resources at her disposal. I sincerely hope that this investigation will be completed by the end of the 2014-15 financial year,” he said.
If the joint standing committee on defence was doing its job, there would have been no reason to refer the matter to the public protector.
“There is absolutely nothing stopping the committee going through the bottom drawers of the NCACC. The joint standing committee on defence has all the powers necessary to investigate the alleged illegal sale of sniper rifles and ammunition to Libya. But the committee preferred to stick its head in the sand and do nothing,” Mr Maynier said.
The arms sales to Libya hit the headlines in February 2011 when then defence minister Lindiwe Sisulu, in reply to a media question, said: “Have we sold any sniper rifles to Libya? Not that I am aware of.”
She insisted that the matter was within the mandate of the NCACC and not the defence department. However, the defence minister sits on the committee.
Within days Mr Radebe issued a press statement accusing Mr Maynier of trying to harm SA’s reputation by resuscitating matters that the NCACC had already provided clarity on.
“We would like to assure everybody and the international community that the South African government will continue to conduct arms transactions in a responsible manner and in doing so will observe obligations on it by both domestic and international laws,” Mr Radebe said at the time.