Address by the Public Protector South Africa,
Advocate Thuli N, Madonsela, on the occasion of the opening
of the Newcastle Regional Office of the Public Protector
in KwaZulu-Natal

Wednesday, 09 December 2009

Programme Director;
Deputy Minister of Justice, Mr Andries Nel;
Deputy Public Protector, Adv Mamiki Shai;
Acting Mayor of Newcastle, Cllr Masina;
Representative of the Amajuba District, Cllr Dlamini Mthethwa;
Provincial Electoral Officer Mr Mosery
Chief Magistrates Stander and Ngwenya
CEO, Office of the Public Protector, Mr Themba Mthethwa;
Representatives of other Chapter Nine Institutions and related government bodies;

Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is an honour to address you on this special occasion when we open the new Newcastle regional office of the Public Protector, which is the first regional office in this province. I deeply cherish this moment because today is special to me in several ways. This gathering is my first opportunity to interface directly with members of the public since my appointment as the Public Protector a little more than a month ago.

For me interacting directly with the public is very important. Face to face interaction provides me with an opportunity to understand the various constituencies. I get a sense of the needs and expectations of the society that my office is established to serve while I’m presented with an opportunity to bounce my ideas for the office on you as end-users of our services.

Our meeting today also takes place during a critical time of the year for us as a nation. Tomorrow is International Human Rights Day, a day we celebrate with the rest of the world. It is the day on which the international community adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that declares that all human beings are born free and equal and have certain rights that are theirs purely because they are human beings. One the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is the right to human dignity.

The right to human dignity and many of the other rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights form the basis of the African Charter on Human and People’s rights and our very own Constitution. The right to human dignity and other human rights also form the core of our African value of ubuntu. Ubuntu is about respecting and honoring the humanity of every person regardless of who they are.

Ladies and gentlemen

As we celebrate international Human Rights Day let us remember that human rights do not violate themselves. It is us human beings and institutions that violate them. Accordingly, if we want a society where everyone enjoys all human rights, as people and as institutions we need to protect and promote these human rights. Later I will elaborate very briefly on our role as the Public Protector in promoting and protecting human rights.

One of the serious threats to the equal enjoyment of human rights, including the right to human dignity, is the problem of violence against women and children. It is accordingly not coincidental that we gather today on the eve of the last day of the annual 16 day campaign directed at violence against women and children. It saddens me that although we have been joining the global community for more that ten years to engage in 16 Days of Activism focus attention on and to combat violence against women and children, the impact is not yet convincing.

I must admit that today more South Africans are aware that violence against women and children not only constitutes a violation of human rights but destroys families and communities while undermining the development of our communities. However, too many young girls continue to be raped and abused in other ways. Women are still not safe anywhere in society, particularly in their own homes.

Many of these women and girls are willfully infected with HIV everyday by men who refuse to wear condoms and men who refuse to take no for an answer. While on the issue of HIV and AIDS, it’s important to note that both men and women are responsible for taking care and avoiding exposing themselves and their love ones to the risk of infection.

Programme Director

I’ve said a lot about human rights and gender based violence. What do these matters have to do with my office as the Public Protector?

The Public Protector as many of you are aware is one of the independent institutions established by the Constitution to support and strengthen democracy. It specifically focuses on public complaints regarding improper or prejudicial conduct by the state and its employees.

You may want to ask- What is improper conduct? There are various forms of improper conduct. The Constitution and the Public Protector Act of 1994 provide most of our guidance on what is prohibited as improper or prejudicial conduct that can be the subject of complaints to be brought to the Public Protector. Even a simple act of rudeness may be brought to us if you feel that it was offensive enough or impacted on service delivery.

Specific acts and omissions that can be brought to us include the following:

• Rudeness
• Failure to deliver according to required standard
• Failure to deliver on time
• Corruption
  

We are also empowered to receive protected disclosures under the Protected Disclosures Act. Other legislation that gives us power include the Protection of Access to Information Act, the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Act and various other Acts.

When any state actor acts in a manner that that is inconsistent with the purpose of the office in question or fails to deliver service appropriately, we are there to assist you.

How can we assist? The Constitution grants us various powers to ensure that for every improper or prejudicial treatment by the state, there is appropriate remedial action. To ensure such remedial action, we investigate, conciliate, mediate, negotiate and take any other appropriate action to ensure justice. Invariably, when we find that the state actor in question acted appropriately we say so. It’s important to bear in mind that we are required by the Constitution to be independent and impartial.

Ultimately, the Public Protector has to ensure that the state is accountable, always acts with integrity and is responsive to all members of the public. When we talk about the state in this sense, we include local government and state funded semi-private entities or para-statals. The only matter excluded from our jurisdiction is the decision of a judge. But complaints regarding the police, clerks of court, probation officers, prosecutors and even a judge and the running of the courts can be brought to the Public Protector.

You’ll agree with me that a lot of improper conduct by the state invariably violates or undermines human rights. For example, if your pension payout or social grant s are not properly processed, your socio-economic rights are undermined. If your ID or passport are not processed appropriately again various human rights are affected, the key ones being the rights to citizenship and freedom of movement. The processing of appeals by the courts equally impacts on human rights. Environmental degradation through improper waste disposal violates the human rights of communities and so does poor service delivery by municipalities. All of these transgressions and others also undermine development and will particularly impact negatively on our attainment of the Millenium Developments Goals(MDGs).

Going back to the issue of violence against women and children, we have a role to play in ensuring that the rights of victims are not violated through improper conduct by service providers in the entire state value chain from the police right up to the courts and correctional services.

We also have a role in transforming the overall behavior of the state to ensure good governance. We are not happy to see the same complaints from the same state organ time and again. We would appreciate your partnership in identifying and addressing systemic gaps. In this particular regard I appeal to state actors in local, provincial and national government to work with us. The public can also help by turning us into an early warning system on systemic service delivery challenges. We’d like to identify these early and work with the state to address them. There’s no need for service delivery chaos and violence.

I look forward to working with all of you in discharging this very important responsibility. Together letter us infuse ubuntu and human dignity in all aspects of service delivery by the state.

I thank you.