The shortlisting process “left a lot to be desired” and jamming 14 interviews into a single day was “jeopardising the selection of a fit and proper candidate to continue the fight against corruption”. That’s how the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Glynnis Breytenbach summed up the Parliamentary interviews of candidates for the position of public protector‚ which wound down just after 3am on Friday. She also chastised the committee’s African National Congress (ANC) members whose “prejudice and self-serving motives were exposed during the interview of Kaajal Ramjathan-Koegh”‚ and stressed the “DA will not accept an ANC lapdog for the post”.Breytenbach said the shortlisting process saw “MPs having to make decisions on reams of documents hastily handed out to them” and “despite objections raised by the DA and the other opposition parties‚ the chairperson pushed on with the process as the ANC’s chronic disregard for due process persists”. Echoing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) chief whip Floyd Shivambu’s threat of a “legal challenge” to the hearings‚ Breytenbach said: “The irony is that should this be rushed through unprocedurally‚ the entire process is at risk of being set aside‚ creating further delay in the appointment of a new public protector.“It seems however that the ANC MPs are less interested in determining the best candidate than they are in hurrying the process along. This suggests that the ANC has already anointed their preferred candidate‚ a pliable lapdog who will not be a thorn in the side of corrupt ANC officials as Thuli Madonsela has been.” Breytenbach said that South African Litigation Centre (SALC) executive director Ramjathan-Koegh was clearly not the ruling party’s “preferred candidate” as she “played a key role in the application to arrest wanted international war criminal Omar Al-Bashir”.She noted that the SALC “was successful in the application‚ and the court was scathing of the ANC government’s disregard for the rule of law in allowing the fugitive to escape”. During her interview‚ “Ramjathan-Koegh was comically accused of being a foreign agent out to effect regime change in South Africa”‚ said Breytenbach‚ adding that “such accusations are utterly inappropriate and unfounded”.“Ramjathan-Koegh should in fact consider this attack on her as a badge of honour and a mark of her integrity. This is an ‘honour’ she now shares with current Public Protector Thuli Madonsela‚ who was similarly accused of being a foreign agent by the ANC when she revealed President (Jacob) Zuma’s corruption in the Nkandla saga‚” she said. “Though the ANC will no doubt block Ramjathan-Koegh from being considered for appointment‚ the DA will not accept an ANC lapdog for the post. “The public protector’s office is too important to South Africa for it too to be captured and corrupted by Zuma and his stooges.”..