New Age2.png
Parliamentary chaos is public protector's fault Eddie Majadibodu, The New Age, Johannesburg, 2 December 2014 As the fray in Parliament from the opposition parties threatens to tear South Africa apart and destroy the House our Constitution established in a historic and democratic outcome, I have been wondering why my comrade Thuli Madonsela - the public protector - has been hiding her head in the thick sand of political obscurity as an activist. I refer to her as my comrade, following her interesting remarks recently when she was informing many of her historical and current status of "iconic activism". As I wondered further, an idea visited my mind that she appears to be the only one who could rescue South Africa from this destructive political downward spiral in Parliament. The public protector probed upgrades at the private home of President Jacob Zuma at Nkandla to determine whether there was indeed merit in allegations of impropriety to the upgrade and her report, like others before, indicated that indeed there was corrupt conduct by some people that had taken place, but it did not state explicitly that the president stole the public money. However, my point is this, since the public protector has claimed to be an activist, something supported by her public road show crusade, at times commenting on her own report on the sidelines, something that is new in the conduct of people occupying this office, why has she allowed her report to be used by the political vultures and hyenas in the opposition to bring down South Africa? I am sure the following question has been troubling many South Africans who, like me, would want the public protector to clarify: . Did her report explicitly state Zuma had stolen the public money? . Did the phrase contained in her report that Zuma and his family unduly benefited from the upgrade, or imply the president was directly involved in stealing the public money? If this is not the case then why has my comrade, who is an iconic activist, gone underground specifically on denouncing some statements made by the opposition parties in the name of her report? The irritating SMS from the DA just before the general election in May this year, made in the name of the public protector's report, should have invoked her to denounce the misquoting of the report - unless the DA's SMS messages accurately represented her report. This was followed by an EFF member statement in Parliament calling Zuma a thief, based on the public protector's report. Can the public protector please come out from her deafening silence and save Parliament and the country? The public protector will forgive me for concluding that her silence could be construed as having been part of the bigger political scheme to influence the outcome of the general elections in May and to impose regime change in South Africa. Between November and December last year, some people sharply raised their concerns regarding the manner in which the public protector handled the interim report. They argued that the confusion the public protector displayed when she said she did not know where to take the interim report worked on the psyche of the public in a way that reflected negatively on the president. They further argued the public protector handled the report in a manner that suggests that she is an interested party. Her handling of the report also appeared to want to try the matter in the court of public opinion. There have been views and counter-views about the handing of the probe by the public protector. This includes the leaks of the report by the Mail & Guardian in December last year and her failure to act against the newspaper. I was of the view that had the public protector acted against the newspaper then South Africans would probably have known where the leaks had come from. If indeed Nkandla had such high levels of public interest as the public protector has always reminded us, similarly anything related to Nkandla, including the leaks by newspapers, also enjoyed public interest and an action against the Mail & Guardian would have assisted in disclosing these dangerous sources, many of which are putting this country at risk. However, it is the current fiasco in Parliament that has stretched my tolerance to the limit. It is my view that if the public protector loves this country and respects other spheres of government and the related democratic institutions, to the extent that she would act in protecting them - as this is no doubt in the public interest - she is then bound to come out and clarify the matter once and for all. It is clear her office has been used to undermine other institutions of democracy and, as such, is tantamount to bringing down the very pillars of democracy her office is expected to work with and defend. . Eddie Majadibodu is head of Production Pillar at NUM and writes in his personal capacity From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/ -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
