The continued attacks on the Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, following her report on President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla upgrade, are disturbing and misguided. They are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the public protector’s constitutional mandate and powers.
President Zuma, some members of Parliament, and last week’s judgment by Judge Ashton Schippers in the Western Cape High Court regarding the SABC’s chief operating officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, all apparently assess the powers of the Office of the Public Protector as being merely those of an ombudsman and not a judge.
