Thuli Madonsela is pulling out all the stops in her investigation of allegations that the controversial Gupta family has attempted state capture. The Treasury has undertaken to give Madonsela an extra R1.5-million to pursue this specific investigation.This is half the amount Madonsela asked the Treasury for in April. The money is to be used to hire outside forensic expertise to help unravel the "Guptagate" scandal.The office of the public protector recently had to close its premises in Siyabuswa, Vryburg, Newcastle, Port Elizabeth and Mabopane to cut costs. Because of the urgency of the investigation, the Treasury has given Madonsela the green light to redirect money from other projects, which will be reimbursed when the extra funds are released.Brothers Ajay and Atul Gupta are said to be close friends of President Jacob Zuma and are involved in business dealings with his son, Duduzane.In addition to investigating allegations that the Gupta family has the power to exert undue influence on the appointment of government ministers, Madonsela is scrutinising all business deals and commercial licences issued to the family in line with a complaint by DA leader Mmusi Maimane in March. Interesting mix of nominees to replace MadonselaThe full list of people nominated to replace Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has brought some interesting characters into the public limelight.The Gupta investigation is likely to be Madonsela's last big operation before she leaves office in October.The investigation stems from revelations by Deputy Minister of Finance Mcebisi Jonas and ANC MP Vytjie Mentor that they were offered ministerial positions by the Gupta family, claims it denied.Madonsela's spokesman, Oupa Segalwe, said the investigation was not being given special treatment but had to be settled without delay "because it [has] the potential to destabilise the country".By May, Madonsela's office had more than 4721 outstanding investigations. Segalwe said inadequate funding had resulted in the office struggling to expedite cases. Public’s contribution in public protector appointment process crucial‚ says Corruption WatchCorruption Watch has urged the public to participate in the appointment process for a new public protector."Without sufficient resources we cannot employ more investigators and those that are in our employ cannot cope with the huge caseload."Constitutional law expert at the University of SA Shadrack Gutto said allocating funds for specific cases was worrying when the public protector had thousands of outstanding cases that could not be completed because of financial constraints."Any funds coming to the public protector should be welcomed but I would be concerned if [the funds] were meant for a particular case. It would show that the people providing funding are selective."Segalwe was at pains to point out that no investigations would suffer from the decision to reallocate money until the Treasury funding was received. "We do not want to create an impression that some investigations will suffer. We are still looking at which projects the resources could be redirected from. These would be those that are due to start in the last quarter of the financial year. This means that, by the time the projects are due to start, the funds would have come through from the Treasury," he said.The Gupta family came into sharp focus as a result of their links to Zuma, his family and the government. In April 2013 a plane chartered by the family landed at Waterkloof Air Force Base carrying guests attending the wedding of the Gupta brothers' niece at Sun City. A 30-page government report - widely dismissed as a white-wash - exonerated Zuma and his ministers and found that the landing of the plane at an air force base was the result of "manipulation by a few".The family, which owns stakes in television station ANN7, The New Age newspaper and Sahara Computers, is said to have left South Africa to live in Dubai. But some family members later returned.Earlier, South African banking institutions closed Gupta-linked business accounts after allegations of state capture surfaced.A report on the Gupta family and its allegedly illicit influencing of the state, believed to be in the hands of the inspector-general of intelligence, should be brought before parliament as a matter of urgency, the DA says...