I feared for my life
Thuli Madonsela worried that ‘ordinary lunatics’ would be incited to harm her
PUBLIC protector Thuli Madonsela feared for her life during her marathon investigation into Nkandla.
In an interview this week — after releasing her much anticipated Nkandla report on the upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s private KwaZulu-Natal home — Madonsela said she was not worried that someone in the government or the ANC might order a hit on her, “but we were worried about people inciting crazy elements”.
“At no stage did we think of government harming us, but because of the irresponsible statements being made, calling me an ‘agent’ and so on, we didn’t know if ordinary lunatics or just unstable people on the ground could feel incited to harm me, given that people were being made to believe that I was trying to steal an election, basically.”
Madonsela also said she had feared that the controversial investigation might never have been completed.
The state attorney, chief state law adviser and several ministers demanded that she stop her investigation. She refused, but the fear that some pretext would be found to move her out of the way was never far from her mind.
“I felt with the ganging up on me that there might be a reason found to suspend me, in which case there would be pressure on whoever is left not to move forward.
“I thought such a trick could be tried, because the suspension part does not need a parliamentary process or a two-thirds majority.”
In November last year, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa threatened to have her arrested if she released her provisional report. However, she said she did not take this too seriously.
“We thought he was bluffing because there was absolutely no basis for doing that. If he ever tried that, it would have been handled by the judiciary. Anything that was going to be done through the judicial process, we were very confident of where we stood.”
She felt more vulnerable to what might be done outside that process, however.
For this reason, she said, her successor ought to be given more protection from political interference than she has had. Her term ends in October 2016.
“I would say for the next public protector the protection should be tightened. Even the impeachment process should be taken away from politicians and given to the Judicial Service Commission,” she said.
Was this despite doubts about the JSC’s independence? “I still think I would rather take my chances with the JSC than with the justice portfolio committee.”
The lowest point for her during the investigation was the reaction of Zuma’s ministers to the findings of her provisional report.
“I had always thought that, in terms of values, we were on the same ground. But their response was not consistent with responses from people who share the same values that inform these investigations — being the constitution and the law.”
Her hopes that they at least shared the same values in terms of the use of public power, “that it should always be exercised in accordance with the law”, and public resources, “that they should always be used for the benefit of the people”, were shattered.
“I thought these values would bind us and that we would review the report in the light of that commonality,” she said.
Her report found that Zuma did not mislead parliament — “he gave wrong information to parliament” but told her this was because of a misunderstanding. “I gave him the benefit of the doubt.”
However, she found that he flouted the Executive Members Ethics Code and said she would be “surprised” if a meeting of the ANC’s nation-
The impeachment process should be taken away from politicians and given to the JSC
al executive committee this week did not hold him to account. “I would be surprised if any political party anywhere in the world, having read this report from A to Z, says this is OK. . . in a country where a child dies in a pit toilet and the government says to the people ‘Oh, we’re sorry, but we don’t have the money to put in proper toilets’.”
The ANC has accused Madonsela of having a political agenda and timing the release of her final report to cause the party maximum damage before the elections.
She retorted that if anyone was responsible for the timing of the report, it was the government itself.
Madonsela had intended to have it out by April last year at the latest, but government obfuscation prevented this.
“By January last year, we’d done the bulk of it. When the questions started getting difficult, government stopped assisting us and started questioning why we were doing this investigation.”
She said she found this line of attack “disturbing”. “Basically, it is saying I am not fit for office.”
Madonsela accused the ministers of trying to undermine the integrity of her work. This is “in contempt of the Public Protector’s Act, unconstitutional and unlawful. The attacks are malicious and baseless.”
She has raised her concerns with the ANC, telling it: “You may not like me as a person, but this institution is supposed to serve South Africa as long as South Africa is a constitutional democracy. Do not erode its credibility for expedience.
“There was a way of handling this thing in a manner associated with the moral
I would be surprised if any political party in the world, having read this report, says this is OK
high ground, but they have chosen to go the low road,” she said.
Respected former ANC military operative Marion Sparg this week joined those calling for Zuma to resign, writes Sam Mkokeli. In the 1980s, Sparg, a former Sunday Times journalist, was the first white woman convicted as an operative of Umkhonto we- Sizwe. In an open letter to Zuma, she said many ANC veterans were “heartbroken” over the Nkandla scandal.
“These comrades of whom I speak, JZ, love the ANC and will vote for the ANC on the 7th of May as I will do. But they all want a sign, JZ. And it’s only you that can give that sign.”
She said the government and, specifically, ministers had done wrong by “shamefully” dodging political accountability and blaming civil servants for the upgrades.
“The choice and the decision is yours . . . What I speak of is the decision to resign, Comrade JZ. Don’t wait. You have the moral courage, JZ. I know you do. It’s tough but it’s the honourable way.
“Resign, not because you have done wrong, but because it’s the right thing to do for the organisation you love and the country you have sacrificed so much for.” Comment on this: write to tellus@sundaytimes.co.za or SMS us at 33971 www.timeslive.co.za