Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana is studying media reports and footage from the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in which comments about his office were allegedly made by National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka and former justice minister Penuell Maduna.
In an SABC news report, Mushwana’s spokesperson Stoffel Fourie said the protector was ”carefully studying reports” allegedly made over the weekend and he would decide ”how to deal with the matter”.
It was indicated in the report that Mushwana believed that ”great damage” had been done to his office.
Fourie said it was always difficult when one public body investigates another. The public protector ”did not have a choice” to investigate the national director as the request had come from the Deputy President, Jacob Zuma.
The cooperation expected had not been forthcoming, said Fourie. Speaking to the SABC on Saturday, Maduna said the protector was a liar while Ngcuka said Mushwana’s report was garbage.
Earlier on Monday, Maduna said he had discussed the matter with the ruling African National Congress and it had been decided that he would not comment further at this stage. He told the 702 radio station that he hoped to put highly pertinent information — which could not be made public at this stage — on the table, including at Parliament, which indicated that the public protector was wrong.
They were referring to the public protector’s report tabled in Parliament on Friday in which the protector said that Ngcuka had acted improperly and unfairly towards the deputy president.
Ngcuka landed in hot water after issuing a statement on August 23 last year saying that there was a prima facie case of corruption against Deputy President Jacob Zuma in relation to the arms deal. This related to an alleged bribe from Thomson CSF/Thales, a French arms company.
Mushwana said this had unjustifiably infringed upon Zuma’s constitutional right to human dignity and caused him to be improperly prejudiced.
The protector noted that Maduna had been replaced as Justice Minister after the April elections and it would serve no purpose to make any recommendations to Parliament ”in regard to his improper failure to cooperate with the public protector”. – I-Net Bridge