Madonsela peeved over canned public hearings

The last-minute cancellation of public hearings into the R1.7-billion police lease scandal was "another case of fruitless and wasteful expenditure", said Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.

According to parliament's media office, ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga had decided to postpone the hearings until further notice because several committee members had other constituency work commitments and parliamentary deployments.

A special joint sitting of the oversight committees for police, public works and justice had been scheduled to question Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde and national police commissioner Bheki Cele today on their involvement in the failed leases of two police head offices.

Madonsela's office has published two separate reports, the first titled "Against the rules" that dealt with the police building in Pretoria, and the second, "Against the rules too", that dealt with the lease for a provincial police head office in Durban.

The first report fingered Cele for irregularities in signing the deal for the Sanlam Middestad building.

The second report pointed a finger squarely at MahlanguNkabinde and Cele for being at fault and called for serious remedial action.

Madonsela said the cancellation of the public hearings meant her office had to forfeit costs of flights and accommodation. Although these were relatively small amounts, they added up in the long run.

While she welcomed attempts by parliament to conduct public hearings, Madonsela said it was not a matter for the legislature.

"The act that governs my office allows me to use parliament when I feel I am being stonewalled or that I need its support for urgent intervention," she said.

The remedial action to be taken against Mahlangu-Nkabinde, said Madonsela, was that of a peer review by her cabinet colleagues and not for a hearing in parliament.

DA police spokesman Dianne Kohler Barnard agreed that it was not a matter for parliament, although the ANC insisted it was.

"President Jacob Zuma should have already implemented the remedial actions. What also concerns me is that the ANC has said these were 'allegations' of wrongdoing. They were not; they were findings," Kohler-Barnard said.

Zuma's office said last month that he had sent Cele a letter asking him for reasons why he should not be suspended.

Madonsela said she was comfortable with the process so far and did not suspect stonewalling at this stage, although she had said in the past that, if necessary, she was prepared to go to court to ensure that her findings and remedial action were upheld.

"What we have to realise here is that we are dealing with a public servant [Cele] and it is almost impossible to fire them. They are governed by their rules of conduct and employment that ensure that all procedures have to be followed," she said.

Madonsela said she took heart from the fact that the Department of Public Works had reinstated Irene Nel, the consultant who was fired for having blown the whistle on the Durban deal.

DA public works spokesman John Steenhuisen said he might use parliament's power of subpoena to force Mahlangu-Nkabinde to state her case in public.

"I fail to see why she is able to say a whole lot of things about the issue at an engineering conference and then not appear before parliament," he said.

Addressing the Engineering Council of SA last month, Mahlangu-Nkabinde described her department as a "cash cow" and said she did not know how long she would keep her job.

The Department of Public Works was given the worst possible rating by the auditor-general for its 2010/11 financial results as it was unable to, among other issues, account for R2.1-billion in capital expenditure.

The Department of Public Works has begun legal proceedings to have the leases cancelled. - I-Net Bridge