ANC Youth League leader Collen Maine hit out at former public protector Thuli Madonsela for referring to him as "Oros".
The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has called for a review of the public protector’s State of Capture report.
New public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane must take the report on review to protect the integrity of the office, the ANCYL said.
“It is nothing more than conversations between friends having tea, telling her a story,” spokesperson Mlondi Mkhize said.
The league said the report was “half-cooked”, not conclusive and mainly based on gossip, innuendo and driven by former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s “determination to bring President Jacob Zuma down”.
League president Collen Maine said because the document was “very thick” they were only concerned with the remedial action recommended by Madonsela.
The league said Madonsela overstepped her powers in recommending that Zuma must institute a judicial commission of inquiry. In her report, Madonsela recommended that Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng nominate a judge for the inquiry.
Powers called into question
Madonsela was investigating allegations of an improper relationship between Zuma and the powerful and politically-connected Gupta family, who the president has referred to as his friends.
Madonsela said in the report she didn’t have the resources to finish the investigation and recommended a judicial inquiry.
Maine said the public protector does not have the powers to do so.
“The Constitution of SA does not give the lady that power, including the Constitutional Court. So there must be a clear separation of powers. We cannot allow the lady, no matter how much she thinks she is intelligent, to get into issues that is [sic] not hers.”
He added that they were not concerned with the content of the report, but the author of the report, slamming Madonsela while also claiming it was written by private auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
When pressed by the media, Mkhize read parts of the report from his mobile phone to prove that they had read through the entire report.
‘I don’t know her name as well’
Maine said Madonsela was nothing more than a “puppet” of the Democratic Alliance, using her report to launch the party’s 2019 election campaign and to bring Zuma down.
Maine said “drama queen” Madonsela must now rest.
“We’re calling for lady to rest in peace … it’s like she is still the public protector.
“It’s like she is not finished with what her handlers would have wanted her to finish, she must rest in peace and allow the new PP to do her work,” Maine said.
Maine also hit out at Madonsela for referring to him as “Oros” – a name some opposition parties call him.
“She said she does not know my name and referred to me as Oros, so I don’t know her name as well. Others are calling her a spy or big nose, I don’t know her name,” Maine said.
He defended Eskom boss Brian Molefe as an example of black excellence fighting against white monopoly capital.