Madonsela replays her gambit
A call on ‘the people’ worked in respect of Nkandla. It may also work for the contempt shown to the office of the public protector
As she stood valiantly alone against a Cabinet and Parliament determined to enrich the president illegitimately by way of upgrades to his Nkandla home, it was easy to forget that public protector Thuli Madonsela is an advocate. And a good advocate is — strictly in the interests of justice, you understand — crafty and, when it serves a worthy goal, borderline duplicitous.
Madonsela can be plenty sly, and it is has served her well before.
In August last year, she called a press conference to release an investigative report on the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa.
In an unexpected turn of events it seemed the report could not yet be made public. But seeing that the media was going to gather, Madonsela took the serendipitous opportunity to release a letter she had written to Parliament on Nkandla, and answer questions on the matter.
Many of the questions followed the same theme. Parliament clearly had no interest in holding President Jacob Zuma to her finding that he should repay some of the taxpayer money spent to build him such luxuries as a “fire pool”. Just what was she going to do about that?
Perpetually short of money (especially to spend on legal frolics that some experts considered unlikely to succeed) and accused of all manner of unsavoury anti-ANC political motives, Madonsela provided what gave every appearance of being an off-the-cuff answer.
“If the people of South Africa feel, as lawyers and as ordinary people, that the Constitution is being trampled on, that personal feelings about people are determining how people conduct themselves, let the people do something,” she said.
Within weeks t he Economic Freedom Fighters ( EFF) had approached the Constitutional Court on Nkandla and the Democratic Alliance was working to fold a high court application of its own into that ultimately successful and historic case.
Zuma ended up arguing that Madonsela — who can approach the treasury directly for emergency money if she can show she desperately needs it — should be made a party to the case.
The ANC made one attempt to criticise Madonsela for getting involved in a “political” court case. It went poorly for the party.
Madonsela, on the other hand, emerged with her remedial powers confirmed by the highest authority.
This Tuesday, Madonsela called another press conference to release reports but then couldn’t because they had not been finalised. Instead she spent nearly equal amounts of time releasing one minor report and talking about other matters — such as those loudly accusing her of being, variously, in the pockets of white capital, Israel, opposition parties, and anti-ANC forces in general.
Her remarks were off the cuff but two things seemed of particular importance to her: virtuous people, and future fightback against those accusing her of personal failings and professional malfeasance.
“Good people, can we stop playing these games?” Madonsela implored, on allegations that she was “fundraising for Israel”.
“We all have the right to a view of the world,” she said a few minutes later, still on the subject of Israel. “But please, good people, don’t impose it on me.”
Her plea to those proclaiming their innocence in her ongoing investigations and simultaneously seemingly keen to distract her from that work was: “Please, good people, just calm down” and “Let’s stop with the childish games.”
The time of the public protector