Too soon to judge

REMEMBER Bulelani Ngcuka? He was South Africa’s first national director of public prosecutions and the man who made the Latin term “prima facie” part of our lingua franca.

In 2003 he claimed there was a prima facie case of corruption against Jacob Zuma, but that it could not be won. At that stage Zuma was the deputy president of the republic.

Within weeks, Ngcuka was labelled an apartheid spy.

The main accusers were Mo Shaik and Mac Maharaj, who based their claims on a pre-democracy ANC operation dubbed “The Bible Project”.

Then-president Thabo Mbeki set up the Hefer Commission of Inquiry to look into the allegation.

It quickly emerged there was no substance to the claim.

However, many others were not as fortunate during the fight for liberation. Some were killed because they were labelled izimpimpi or police informers.

Fast forward to present times and the latest fashionable label is being “captured”.

However, the problem with labels, as we saw with Ngcuka, is that they are often lacking in substance and used merely to undermine an individual.

PUBLIC Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane seems to be the latest victim. The odds were always stacked against her. But they would have been stacked against anyone who replaced Thuli Madonsela, given the sterling job Madonsela did.

However, we can’t expect Mkhwebane to be Madonsela.

She is her own person and should be given space to do things her way.

She has not even been in office for a year, so it is too soon to judge her or claim she has been captured.

This week Mkhwebane’s office released four reports.

All were highly critical of the government.

In all four reports Mkhwebane’s office stands up for ordinary citizens, something we would expect of a public protector.

She also confirmed that she would oppose President Jacob Zuma’s review of the “State of Capture” report, making it clear she is not blindly loyal to the president.

This is not to say Mkhwebane is beyond reproach. However, it is too soon to label her. All it does is undermine Mkhwebane and, more importantly, the office she heads.