Address by the Public Protector of South
Africa, Adv Thulisile Madonsela, to the National Press Club
at the Court Classique Suite Hotel, Pretoria
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Chairperson of the National Press Club, Yusuf Abramjee
Vice Chairperson, Jos Charle
Other members of the Executive Committee of the Club
Members of the Club
Colleagues from the Office of the Public Protector
Distinguished guests
I am deeply honored by the invitation to join you today. The
timing of the engagement could not have been better. I’ve
only been in office as the Public Protector since the 15th
of October this year. I see this first contact as not only
critical for introducing myself but also as an opportunity
for us to set ground rules for our engagement and
cooperation as critical watchdogs in our young democracy.
As you know, the Public Protector was established under the
Constitution as one of the institutions supporting
democracy. We refer to these institutions as Chapter 9
institutions. For us to add full value as envisaged in the
Constitution, a partnership with the media is indispensable.
The media plays an important role in ensuring state
accountability and good governance. These are central
matters in the mandate of the Public Protector. In many
instances, the Public Protector depends on the media to
identify matters for possible investigation with regard to
improper conduct by state officials and officers. The media
also plays a critical role in conveying outcomes of
investigations and informing the public about the role of
the public protector.
I accordingly hope that this interaction is the first of
many we will have in the next seven years. My request for
assistance is that you help people understand that I am not
the Public Prosecutor. I was recently amused to learn that
Grade12 learners at my daughter’s school thought I had been
appointed to head a private security company.
Chairperson;
Constitutionally empowered to investigate any conduct in
state affairs or the public administration as a whole, where
there is suspicion or allegations of impropriety or
prejudice, the Public Protector plays a critical role of
keeping government in check. The only matters excluded from
the Public Protector’s scrutiny are court decisions and
matters outside the public sector. Nevertheless, our mandate
is broad and includes all levels of government and
para-statals.
With regard to outcomes, we have a fairly broad scope, which
includes investigation and reporting any legitimate
complaint of impropriety on the part of state actors.
Matters range from simple matters such as pensions, grants,
RDP houses and IDS to allegations of tender irregularities.
Our reports are tabled before Parliament to ensure that
recommendations are implemented. Competent solutions include
mediation, conciliation and negotiation. In fact the use of
mediation, conciliation and negotiation powers of the Public
Protector’s mandate is one of the issues that I would like
to develop further during my term.
As you know the Constitution dictates that the Public
Protector must be impartial and exercise his/her powers and
perform his/her functions without fear, favour or prejudice.
In a nutshell, the Public Protector is independent of
government, political parties and any other grouping. I am
quite sure that you will continue to play a role to ensure
that I adhere to this requirement.
Members of the media;
In the few days I’ve been in office I’ve identified a few
key challenges and priorities. These include accessibility
of the Public Protector, improvement of turnaround time,
balancing attention to high profile cases and bread and
butter matters, moving beyond systemic investigations to
incorporate systemic interventions
Accessibility to all our people, including rural communities
is a key challenge and a priority if I am to make a
difference.
I’ve noted the efforts of my predecessors to make the OPP
accessible to communities in order to live up to the
constitutional imperative of being accessible to all persons
in the country. But I believe there is still a lot to be
done and that the media can play a critical role in helping
us reach everyone. It’s not just a matter of knowing that
the Public Protector exists but its also knowing what
matters can be brought to this institution and what recourse
or outcomes can be expected.
Accessibility efforts to-date have included the
establishment of nine provincial and seven regional offices.
Regional Offices can be found in the Western Cape, Northern
Cape, Gauteng, North West and Mpumalanga. Plans are afoot to
open another office in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal in the near
future.
Over and above these, there are mobile offices in Limpopo,
Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal that help us reach far-flung
areas in these provinces. Through our outreach unit we also
hold clinics and workshops monthly in different areas of our
provinces to spread the word about our existence and the
services we offer. Staff also takes new complaints during
such activities.
Another critical challenge I’ve identified is the turnaround
time for investigations.
This is particularly the issue on small cases such as
pensions, child grants ID applications and billing queries
at local government. I have noticed that some of the matters
take more time than it is necessary and this impact
negatively on the turnaround time. We need to really improve
on that as a matter of urgency. In this regard we need
cooperation from government departments, provinces, local
government and parastals.
It should not take six months or more just to find out what
is holding up a grant application, a pension application, an
ID application, an appeal application or an RDP house
application. Even to explain an adverse decision should not
take a long time. The only matters that should take a bit
longer are those where we request or direct that a decision
be reconsidered.
We also need the media’s cooperation in striking a balance
between high profile cases and those involving ordinary
people. While the media often focuses its attention on
matters involving high profile individuals, we believe a
case of somebody in dire need of a house, identity document
or grant is just as big. If the media highlights cases and
our successes on these seemingly small matters, more people
will see the value of approaching us.
Co-operation with our stakeholders is one other area that we
need to draw our attention to. We are of the opinion that if
we have good cooperation with stakeholders, it would be easy
to resolve some cases quickly. This will also see the number
of recurring cases such as those relating to appeals,
pensions, grants, birth certificates and identity documents
dropping. We need to reach out to departments as well so
that we can agree on protocol to be observed in the service
delivery value chain.
Part of our new plans and priorities include systemic
interventions. This is in addition to and an improvement on
what we currently refer to as systemic investigations. The
purpose of systemic interventions is to work with
institutions that have recurring problems to collectively
identify the systemic causal factors and oversea the
implementation of solutions. The envisages solutions include
systems alignment with compliance requirements and capacity
building
We have also identified the need to improve our forensic
capabilities. In this exercise, we plan to involve and
partner with such institutions as the National Prosecuting
Authority and the Office of the Auditor General.
Chairperson;
The issues stated above are some of those that my office
will be focusing on in the next few months until we have
reviewed our. Related immediate plans include the following:
- We plan to hold bilateral meetings with identified
government departments and entities such as the South
African Social Security Agency, Government Employees Pension
Fund, Home Affairs, Justice and Constitutional Development,
Human Settlements, Finance, Labour and selected
municipalities. We receive a lot of similar complaints about
these institutions and we see the need to sit around the
table with top decision makers in these institutions to find
solutions. This will particularly save our investigators
from spending a lot time chasing state officials for answers
on delays and reasons for various administrative actions.
We’ll also use this opportunity to draw attention to
compliance requirements under the Promotion of
Administrative Justice Act(PAJA) and relevant sector laws
that are regularly violated by administrators.
- The Intake and Early Resolution Unit I’ve inherited as an
infant will be given priority as it has enormous potential
for reducing the turnaround time of complaints such as the
pension payouts, IDs and social grants.
- I was interviewed on Ukhozi FM two weeks ago and I clearly
established that our mandate is not understood by many
people. Many listeners who called in complained about police
conduct. The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) is an
institution that investigates complaints of brutality,
criminality and misconduct against members of the South
African Police Service (SAPS) and the Municipal Police
Service. We are already engaging with the ICD to ensure that
they are the first port of call on these matters.
- We have also identified the need to make our investigation
processes more transparent. This will be the case mainly on
systemic investigations, where we mostly investigate
recurring matters. One other way to maintain transparency
will be to hold public hearings during investigations and
interventions.
- We are also going to encourage people to lodge complaints
regarding suspected corruption such as tender irregularities
among others. People need to understand that we don’t only
help them to get grants and pensions. We also wield the
power to investigate maladministration in state affairs and
fully probe such allegations.
- We need to intensify our communication to the people so
that they know exactly what is needed from them and help us
assist them. For example, most letters of complaints lack
important details such as contact numbers and are often not
clear. The time it takes an investigator to write back to
the complainant and wait for a clarifying response instead
of just picking up the phone to get more details impedes on
our pursuit to resolve cases quicker. We further need
improve on our way of reporting. Our reports lack important
details such as information received from both the complainant(s) and the defense.
- Improving our outreach and interaction with stakeholders.
We are particularly concerned that our existence should be
known to and benefit all our people, including those in
rural and other historically neglected areas. We also plan
to reach out to the media, political parties, civil society
and others to get a sense of their expectations and agree on
terms of engagement as we all play our different and
complementary roles to promote good governance and the rule
of law.
Chairperson;
There many other challenges but we have identified these for
our immediate attention. We hope that we will make head way
in this mission to improve on the impact the Public
Protector’s contributing to the rule of law and good
governance.
The key principles that will guide our work in the next few
years are: Accountability, Integrity and Responsiveness. I
count on you to help me make the difference I need to make.
Let us all play our roles in serving our people and
enriching brand South Africa.
I thank you.
|
