Thuli Madonsela guns for Mahlangu-Nkabinde

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela is prepared to subpoena Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde to explain her role in the controversial police headquarters leasing deals.

Speaking to the Cape Town Press Club yesterday, Madonsela said ''state organs'' could not be allowed to "sit in a little corner and ignore the finding".

But she stressed that she would subpoena only as a last resort.

''If it is clear that you have no intention to co-operate, then we will subpoena,'' she said.

Madonsela's first report on the police leasing deals, released in February, pertained to her investigation into the deal for the Middestad building in Pretoria, which was leased for R500-million from businessman Roux Shabangu.

The second, released in July, scrutinised the R1.1-billion leasing of Transnet Tower, in Durban, also from Shabangu.

Madonsela found that the leases were unlawful, invalid and ''fatally flawed''.

She criticised Mahlangu-Nkabinde for ignoring legal opinion that the leases were defective in law, and said President Jacob Zuma should consider taking action against her, national police commissioner Bheki Cele and other senior officials.

She said she had given the minister 60 days in which to explain to the cabinet why she had insisted on going ahead with the leases instead of declaring them invalid.

The 60 days expired at midnight last night and, by late yesterday, there was no indication that Mahlangu-Nkabinde would respond.

Madonsela said her officials had been talking to the Department of Public Works to find out what was happening but had not been given an answer.

Mahlangu-Nkabinde "should have taken [my] report on review if she did not like it, and she could also have asked for an extension to the 60-day deadline," said Madonsela.

When asked what would happen if Mahlangu-Nkabinde ignored the ruling, Madonsela said: "I am hopeful that that's not going to happen because that would be not just a disregard for the Public Protector as a constitutional institution, but it would be disregard for the Constitution and the law.

"It would be suggesting that whoever does that is above the law, which obviously is contrary to the rule of law," said Madonsela.

Instead of making Mahlangu-Nkabinde account to the cabinet, Zuma last month asked Mahlangu-Nkabinde and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa for their side of the story.

Zuma's spokesman, Mac Maharaj, said yesterday that the president had "undertaken a considerable amount of work already" in response to the public protector's report.

But most of this work could not be disclosed "without prejudicing those affected by the report", said Maharaj, who repeated that Zuma would not take hasty actions and would "make his decision known in due course".

Mahlangu-Nkabinde's spokesman, Sam Mkhwanazi, said he had no idea that there was a 60-day deadline. He said only the minister would know.

Mahlangu-Nkabinde had previously announced that she asked a court to review the lease deals.

Madonsela's reports were recently referred to parliament's police and public works committees for discussion. Committee secretaries confirmed yesterday that the reports would not be discussed before parliament goes into recess next week.

Madonsela said parliament had the right to interrogate the reports but had no power to water them down.

"The only other institution that can reverse the decisions I have made would be a court of law," she said.

The DA's parliamentary leader, Athol Trollip, bemoaned the fact that the report had been "taken off the agenda for today's session of oral questions to Zuma in the National Assembly.

''The removal of the Public Protector's report from tomorrow's agenda has once again denied the . public the chance to hear an explanation for the involvement of senior government officials in the [police] lease scandal. So far, the national police commissioner has cancelled two press conferences on the Public Protector's report and the minister of public works has dodged two scheduled appearances before the public works portfolio committee to explain her involvement in the deals,'' said Trollip.