National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu will meet Police minister Nathi Mthethwa and Public Protector Thuli Madonsela next week, Parliament said in a statement on Saturday.
“Mr Max Sisulu, has noted, with grave concern, recent reports in the media concerning the Public Protector Ms Thuli Madonsela,” the statement read.
“The Office of the Public Protector, like all other Chapter Nine organisations, is accountable to Parliament for its activities, as the Constitution prescribes.”
Sisulu, on behalf of the National Assembly, said the Office of the Public Protector enjoyed “the full confidence of Parliament”.
“The Public Protector must be able to perform her functions without fear, favour or any hindrance.”
Police on Friday said they could not comment on reports that the Hawks had launched an investigation against Madonsela.
Police spokesperson Vishnu Naidoo told the South African Press Association he was looking into the matter and described it as sensitive.
“I’m busy researching this … we have to be quite thorough,” he said of a purported internal report by the Hawks on an inquiry into Madonsela.
Change in the script
Madonsela was due to address a media conference on Wednesday to deliver an update on several investigations, including the key probe into the police headquarters leasing scandal.
Her report on the Pretoria lease and her leaked draft report on the Durban lease — both involving property mogul Roux Shabangu and inflated rates — came down hard on police National Commissioner Bheki Cele.
Madonsela swept aside the police boss’s protestations that he was not in direct control of the procurement process and laid ultimate responsibility at his door.
But on Wednesday, the script changed when Independent Newspapers published a dramatic claim that the police were poised to arrest Madonsela on fraud and corruption charges.
The story was written by senior editor Jovial Rantao, who has previously reported on leaks from crime intelligence, notably concerning the Selebi investigation.
Citing unnamed sources and undisclosed documentation, Rantao claimed that, although Madonsela was a commissioner of the South African Legal Reform Commission, a company that she owned did work worth R1.8-million for the commission.
But Madonsela has vigorously denied this.
Rantao’s sources appeared to distance Cele from the investigation but they repeated his mantra about the Public Protector’s unfairness in holding him responsible for the actions of a separate department — public works.
Rantao’s most specific information was sourced not from the police but from the justice department. He noted that, in September 2009, the justice department sought the state law adviser’s opinion on Madonsela’s activities.
The opinion allegedly recommended approaching the Public Protector’s office or reporting the matter to law enforcement agencies for an investigation for possible contravention of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.
Justice Minister Jeff Radebe’s spokesperson, Tlali Tlali, confirmed to Independent Newspapers that there was a departmental inquiry, although he was vague about the alleged transgression.
Madonsela spent most of her media conference dealing with the allegations reported by Rantao, while raising concerns that the alleged police investigation was part of a dirty-tricks campaign against her. The allegations — and suspicions of a police set-up — overshadowed her other announcements, including revisiting the Oilgate investigation.
Civil society organisations and, surprisingly, Mthethwa rushed to support her.
Although the police appeared to be poised to confirm there was an investigation, they seemed to have second thoughts following Mthethwa’s outspoken comments published on Thursday.
Mthethwa told the Times that if the police were investigating Madonsela, he and Cele would have known about it. “I know nothing. In fact, I can say there is no such [investigation]. If it were from the police, I would have known if it involved the Public Protector,” he was quoted as saying. – Sapa and staff reporters