President Jacob Zuma has decided to complain to the office of the public protector about the leaking of an audio recording of a discussion he had with former protector Thuli Madonsela during her investigation of allegations of state capture. He wants an explanation of the office's policy on the release of recordings of interviews made during the course of investigations.The transcript of the interview includes Madonsela's exchanges with the president's lawyer, Michael Hulley, and makes clear her frustration with the president's explanations as to why he could not answer questions about his relationship with the Gupta family and his decision to fire cabinet ministers."Why do you need a lawyer to be able to tell me why you removed any of those ministers?" asks Madonsela.Zuma keeps quiet."All I'm asking is for honest answers," she says.And Zuma remains silent.We should not be surprised that this latest complaint constitutes Zuma's first real response to Madonsela's State of Capture report. The initial response of the Presidency was to say that the contents of the report would be studied before a decision was taken on submitting it to judicial review.Instead of responding to Madonsela's finding that there was evidence to suggest that he violated the Executive Members' Ethics Act in that he did not investigate allegations of bribery made by members of his cabinet, he complains about the recording being "leaked", even though every word of it was in the transcript that was part of Madonsela's report.He's done it before. When opposition MPs rounded on him during question time in the National Assembly he moaned about being "abused" and threatened not to return.Instead of muddying the waters by questioning the release of the recording, Zuma should implement Madonsela's recommendation that he appoint a judicial commission of inquiry into state capture.Any other response would give the impression that he has something to hide...