Thuli Madonsela rakes in another award

Former Public Protector advocate Thuli Madonsela will travel to Melbourne in March to accept the third Commonwealth Law Conference Rule of Law award.

The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) nominated Madonsela for the accolade and congratulated her on Monday.

“We are delighted and proud that this worthy South African lawyer will receive international recognition from her peers across the Commonwealth for her work in protecting our Constitution and promoting the concept of the Rule of Law‚’ said LSSA co-chairpersons Jan van Rensburg and Mvuzo Notyesi.

The Rule of Law award will be presented to Madonsela by the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA). The award recognises an individual or firm that has an outstanding contribution to the rule of law‚ which has an impact both within their own country and the Commonwealth.

The CLA said Madonsela had demonstrated to South Africans the merit in pursuing truth‚ regardless of the obstacles‚ in her tenure as Public Protector.

• Without an inquiry into state capture‚ the trust deficit in SA will continue to grow: MadonselaFormer public protector Thuli Madonsela said some information that she uncovered during the State of Capture report made her “really worried” about who is running the country. 

“Advocate Madonsela created a beacon of hope for all South Africans in ensuring that the public was not only aware of the public abuse of power‚ but also that they had recourse against it‚” it said.

Canadian lawyer Robin Sully‚ who has dedicated her life’s work to the protection of human rights‚ and former president of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka Upul Jayasuriya are the award's two previous winners.

After finishing her seven-year term as Public Protector in October‚ Madonsela has been named Forbes Africa 'Person of the Year 2016' and received special honours at the 2016 Mahatma Gandhi Awards.

She has been awarded Doctor of Law degrees from the University of Stellenbosch‚ the University of Cape Town‚ Rhodes University and the University of Fort Hare.

She is currently working on her memoir‚ to be released next year.

• Parliament lauds Madonsela & CoParliament yesterday bade farewell to heads of four chapter 9 institutions and applauded them for the role they played in advancing democracy. 

Publisher Pan Macmillan‚ which announced last week that it has acquired world rights for the book‚ said it is honoured to bring Madonsela's “important and inspiring” story to the world.

Madonsela will accept Rule of Law award at the closing ceremony of the 20th Commonwealth Law Conference in Melbourne‚ Australia‚ in March.