New ANC attack on Thuli

The ANC has launched a campaign to rein in public protector Thuli Madonsela, who continues to infuriate powerful politicians.

ANC chief whip Stone Sizani wrote to Speaker Max Sisulu yesterday asking him to "consider advising" Madonsela to submit her report on the controversial and costly upgrading of President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home to parliament.

Madonsela has been unsure to whom she should to submit the report because, she said, the Executive Members' Ethics Act does not give clear guidance in this instance, in which the report is on an investigation that directly involves Zuma, who, as the country's president, would normally be its recipient.

Sizani's spokesman, Moloto Mothapo, said: "In the event that the public protector may not issue findings of an investigation to the president due to lack of clarity, parliament should be the competent oversight authority to deal with such a report."

He said both Zuma and Madonsela, by law, report to parliament.

Mothapo said that, by publicly stating that she faced a dilemma in respect of to whom she should submit her report, Madonsela "subtly sought to try the president and his executive in a court of public opinion".

"Her inferences [sic] in the media have unfairly projected the president and his executive as a law unto themselves who do not want to be held accountable."

The plan to get Madonsela to submit her report to parliament emerged on the day she called for parliament to clarify how she should report. Her call for clarity was made yesterday when heads of Chapter 9 institutions - of which the public protector is one - met parliament's presiding officers, including Sisulu.

Madonsela is often at loggerheads with the justice portfolio committee, which oversees her office.

She was recently criticised by a special committee set up to look into her investigation of the leasing by the Independent Electoral Commission of headquarters premises.

The committee let IEC chairman Pansy Tlakula off the hook last week but accused Madonsela of over-stepping her authority.

Madonsela had found Tlakula guilty of a conflict of interest for her role in the leasing and called for parliament to take action against her.

Madonsela said yesterday at the meeting with parliament's presiding officers that the members of the justice portfolio committee had an incomplete understanding of the legal provisions associated with her work.

Cedric Frollik, parliament's head of committees, said Madonsela's call for the establishment of a dedicated oversight committee would be considered, along with gripes raised by other Chapter 9 institutions.

These would be considered before the current parliamentary term expired ahead of next year's general election. But he said there would be no change to Madonsela's reporting lines until a review had taken place.

The DA's Lindiwe Mazibuko said her party had long called for the report to be brought before the National Assembly "so that it can be scrutinised and debated publicly."