Bodybuilder, loans truant and an attorney barred from Sun City in the running For 20 hours on Thursday, 14 eminent South Africans were locked in a room, with one of them allowed to leave every hour.Each one was subjected to more than an hour of grilling by the multiparty committee which must find a successor to Thuli Madonsela as public protector.The process morphed from the confused to the ridiculous as MPs yawned and one even nodded off through the last two interviews.All of this was done so that no candidate should have the advantage of being able to watch their rivals being interviewed on TV.However, organisers did not take the candidates' cellphones or laptops, rendering the process pointless.So how did the candidates while away the time? "We drank a lot of tea. We did not speak much," Judge Siraj Desai said of the interaction.In parliament's Old Assembly Chamber, meanwhile, events were spicy, surprises were many, and fuses became shorter and shorter. This is a synopsis of the somewhat farcical process to fill one of the most important posts in the country.MICHAEL MTHEMBUThis candidate was unfortunate to be the first to be grilled by the MPs.Mthembu, who holds a BProc degree and an LLB, struggled to respond to some questions.He admitted he had failed to service bank loans, leading to repossession, and grappled with a question about his involvement in the liberation struggle, failing in the end to give a straight answer."I think I played a role limited by the circumstances I was in. Our circumstances of participating in the struggle were limited by circumstances of us being students."story_article_right1SHARISE WEINERWeiner, a high court judge for the past five years, was appointed a senior counsel in 1995. Using a PowerPoint presentation she told the interview panel how the candidates would remind parliament of the importance of Chapter 9 institutions.Weiner has been involved in various types of litigation and presided over cases involving the state and parastatal entities.She told the committee that then- president Nelson Mandela, in 1996, had spoken of the need for Chapter 9 institutions.CHRIS MADIBENG MOKODITWAThe 77-year-old advocate, with an LLB from the University of Bophuthatswana (1988) and an LLM in human rights and constitutional development from the former Rand Afrikaans University, provided a few light moments.Asked about his advanced age, Mokoditwa said: "I don't hide my age, I'm 77. I'm a bodybuilder. I can do Soweto Marathon, this is a breeze. I did 15km Soweto Marathon."Mokoditwa was expelled from the University of Fort Hare in 1968.His previous employment was as a Gillette sales representative, promoting razors and shaving creams.SIRAJ DESAIWestern Cape High Court judge Siraj Desai was the most prominent candidate to come before the ad hoc committee during the interviews.A rape accusation made against him during a working visit to Mumbai, India, in 2004 featured prominently during his interview.DA MP Werner Horn wasted no time and asked Desai about the "Mumbai incident", questioning Desai's honesty.His "public spats" with Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe and Judge Lee Bozalek raised concern about his temperament, with one MP stating that the position "requires you to have a cool head".NARNIA BOHLER-MULLERA doctor of law, who became a full professor at the age of just 32, Bohler-Muller has an impressive CV of academic experience.Of concern, however, was information from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University outlining disciplinary action taken against her - in one instance over a sick note, and then over an ethical concern regarding her assistance to a PhD student. The university's letter also indicated a leak of confidential information, but Bohler-Muller seemed confused about this.She said she had handed her sick note to the wrong person in the department, and in the case of the PhD student had agreed to help edit his thesis, but the following day wrote to say she could not assist.She said transcripts of the hearing would prove her integrity was intact. story_article_right2MAMIKI GOODMAN (née Shai)Goodman, a former deputy in the office of the public protector, has a controversial past - she accused then public protector Lawrence Mushwana of sexual harassment and reported Madonsela to parliament.To add to her problems, it emerged that she was suspended from her job at the National Gambling Board."I had an altercation in a meeting with my boss. Immediately after my nomination, I received a letter saying that I said my boss is biased, but apologised, and we tried to resolve the matter," said Goodman.Asked why she had not indicated this on the form when asked about disciplinary action or internal investigation, she said: "That was true in my former employment."Goodman said "conflict is necessary when you are trying to rectify wrongs" and asked MPs to "understand me for who I am, not how the media describes me".Opposition parties, however, showed little love for Goodman. BUSISIWE MKHWEBANEMkhwebane, an admitted attorney, former investigator in the office of the public protector and currently an analyst at the State Security Agency, seemed to impress the committee.Ad hoc committee chairwoman Dr Makhosi Khoza spent much of the day encouraging candidates and MPs to be "crisp" in their answers, and Mkhwebane crisply responded to questions regarding the authenticity of her degree by ANC MP Bongani Bongo, who said he could find no record of her having obtained her BA(Law) degree.She said: "I don't have a BA(Law), I have a BProc and I find it strange that you could find no record of it. I studied at the University of the North. How can I do an LLB with the University of the North without a BProc? It's highly impossible."JILL OLIPHANTOliphant, an attorney with 21 years of experience, nervously told the committee she had been nominated for the post by her sister, and had not expected to be shortlisted.Very soft-spoken, she was asked to speak up on more than one occasion.She revealed that she was banned from Sun City after an incident in which security at the casino accused her of stealing a cellphone she had found at one of the slot machines, and had intended to hand in to security.She said she was made to sign a form stating she was banned after "I got angry".The EFF's Floyd Shivambu mused about whether South Africa really wanted a "gambling public protector", but Oliphant said that if she got the "life-changing" post, she would change this aspect of her life.KAAJAL RAMJATHAN-KEOGHRamjathan-Keogh, who heads the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, which took the government to court for not arresting Sudan President Omar al-Bashir when he was in South Africa, was never going to get an easy interview.However, her spirited interactions with the committee recalled scenes of Madonsela being hammered by MPs, with questions about her organisation, its funders and the decision to approach the courts.Political parties do not disclose their funders, but ANC MP Amos Masondo demanded to know who funded the centre, and echoed previous ANC concerns about foreign interests and regime change.Ramjathan-Keogh answered all questions about funding, adding that the money being used to defend the centre's case on appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court was all in "South African rands".She strongly denied foreign control, saying she took "deep offence" at the statement.story_article_right3BONGANI MAJOLAMajola has law degrees from Harvard and the University of Zululand and has worked at the Legal Resources Centre, assisting the vulnerable. He has lectured in law, was a magistrate and works for the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.His work at the UN put him in charge of large budgets, supporting his claim that he would not struggle to manage the public protector budget. Shivambu took him to task for being a magistrate during apartheid, but he said he had been just to black people.NONKOSI CETYWAYOClearly an ANC favourite, Cetywayo has never practised law, but has held a number of positions mostly linked to the political principal she served at the time, including National Assembly Speaker and ANC national chairwoman Baleka Mbete.She pinned her candidacy to a vision to place greater emphasis on serving the poor and marginalised as public protector, earning the ire of opposition MPs, who feared she might not go after the powerful and politically connected.But Cetywayo came unstuck when MP Steve Swart (ACDP) and Shivambu asked her whether she was an ANC member. At first she ignored the question, then said she was not active, and finally admitted to being a fully paid-up member.ANC MPs said "it is not a crime to be an ANC member" but opposition MPs criticised chairwoman Khoza, saying she was giving Cetywayo an unfair advantage and prompting her answers.Cetywayo was extremely hazy in recollecting her role in parliament's handling of the Nkandla report.WILLIE HOFMEYRThe struggle veteran and former head of the Asset Forfeiture Unit and Special Investigating Unit shocked MPs by stating that his job at the National Prosecuting Authority kept him occupied for only three hours a day, and "does not really get me jumping out of bed in the morning".Hofmeyr said he knew the work of the public protector quite well, from having worked with the office and from having been investigated by it.ANC MPs grilled him on his statements that he had applied for the job in the belief that he would not get it anyway, to which he answered that rather than doubting the process, he believed the competition was strong.Opposition MPs cornered him on his support for the NPA decision to drop corruption-related charges against President Jacob Zuma in 2009.He said he believed the legal process to have been contaminated by political considerations, but that he was less than certain that he had taken the right decision.MUVHANGO LUKHAIMANELukhaimane is an academic and the country's pension funds adjudicator. By the time her interview started, after midnight, several MPs looked drained and at least one was nodding off.Lukhaimane said she had reduced the backlog in pension fund cases so that it had practically disappeared.She is also associated with the national security agencies, which she has advised on occasion.The State Security Agency, however, said in its letter that she had a criminal record, having been found guilty both of assault and dealing in liquor without a licence. She denied having a criminal record. story_article_right4KEVIN MALUNGAZimbabwe-born Malunga has been the deputy public protector for four years and little could have prepared him for the unexpected State Security Agency report on him.The SSA letter said he lacked the security clearance which the agency said he needed for the job - which, if true, would disqualify him not only from his desired position but from his current one.From the chair, Khoza had her hands full as she shouted down Swart and DA MP Phumzile van Damme, who wanted to know where in the legislation it was stated that the public protector needed top-secret clearance.Malunga, whose practical knowledge of the workings of the public protector's office was impressive, struggled to answer questions about the circumstances under which he left the University of the Witwatersrand, and about how he arrived in South Africa. He was hamstrung by some of the SSA's objections to him apparently being classified confidential, so they could neither be raised nor defended.joubertj@sundaytimes.co.za, capazoriob@sundaytimes.co.za, ndenzeb@sundaytimes.co.za..