The Big Read: Thula about politics, Thuli

A day after releasing her hard-hitting report on security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela addressed a discussion at Wits University on its contents.

She gave this analogy based on George Orwell's Animal Farm novel: "The pigs were the leaders and they thought, 'we liberated you; we deserve better', and they began eating more than all the other animals, changing the rules as they saw fit."

Madonsela hit even harder in a subsequent interview with the Sunday Times.

Speaking about the ANC national executive committee meeting this week, where Nkandla is expected to feature, Madonsela said: "I would be surprised if any political party anywhere in the world, having read this report from A-Z, says this is okay, in a country where a child dies in a pit toilet and the government says to the people, 'Oh, we are sorry, but we don't have the money to put in proper toilets'."

Her report - Secure in Comfort - has almost overtaken the Oscar Pistorius murder trial as the main focus of the national discourse since its release last week.

If you were at her Pretoria office when she released the report, a chill would have run down your spine as she read out details of the extravagant waste of public funds that is downright criminal.

Take, for example, the proposal from the South African Police Service that a "safe haven" for Zuma and his family be included in the Nkandla construction.

The safe haven proposal - priced at a modest R500000 by police experts - was hijacked and converted into a grandiose underground bunker accessed via an elevator for R19-million.

The report is littered with other examples of unconscionable expansion of the scope and drastic increase in costs to the benefit of unscrupulous contractors as the Nkandla project was laid out unchecked.

Paging through the report and taking in its contents is enough to draw widespread outrage and condemnation, as it rightly has since being made public.

So why would its author, the holder of a Chapter 9 office that is supposed to be independent, overstep the mark and resort to political statements in an attempt to draw attention to her sterling work?

Madonsela has concluded an exhaustive two-year investigation that has unearthed more than the parallel inter-ministerial task team investigation.

She needs to allow her report to speak for itself and refrain from making statements that are politically charged.

In making suggestions to the ruling party and using the Animal Farm analogy to tarnish the political leadership, as Madonsela seems to have done, she is opening her office - whose independence must be beyond question - to attacks that could erode its credibility.

The public protector must investigate, make findings and leave politics to politicians. By playing politics, she is barking up a tree with fruits that could be extremely bitter to swallow.

In her interview with the Sunday Times, she made extremely serious remarks about the justice portfolio committee to which she is supposed to account.

"I would say for the next public protector, the protection should be tightened. Even the impeachment process should be taken away from politicians and given to the Judicial Service Commission.

"I would rather take my chances with the JSC than with the justice portfolio committee," she said.

In one swoop, Madonsela has not only made disparaging remarks about a multiparty committee, but has questioned the independence, impartiality and effectiveness of parliament, an institution that not only brought her into office, but is tasked with solidifying the independence of her office.

Already, irresponsible louts in the ANC Youth League and the Congress of South African Students have made rude statements about her conduct, including nasty remarks about her appearance.

To the ANC's credit, it forced them to retract the statements and apologise to Madonsela.

But if she continues to use her report to seek hero status and draw attention to herself, or if she uses it as a platform to make unwarranted political statements, then it will be difficult to contain the hotheads once they start firing back.