Public Protector urges state legal
advisers to be �voices of reason�
Friday, 11 November 2011
Public Protector Adv Thuli Madonsela has appealed to state
legal advisers to act like voices of reason when executing
their duties rather than defending indefensible wrongs of
the state or encouraging non-compliance during
investigations and implementation of her findings.
Addressing the annual general meeting of the Cape Law
Society in Port Alfred, Eastern Cape on Friday, the Public
Protector said some of the responses she often received from
government when her office enquired as part of
investigations were confrontational rather than engaging her
in the spirit of Section 181(3) of the Constitution.
She pointed out that the Constitution required organs of
state to support Chapter Nine institutions, including her
office, to ensure these institutions� independence and
effectiveness, among other things.
�Lawyers must be voices of reason and not hired assassins
when they provide legal advice to organs of state. We don�t
want to live in a country where might is right. We certainly
do not want a state that uses its power to undermine its own
citizens,� she said.
However, citing a case where a pupil from Soweto lost both
his legs after a tree fell on him while in a container
classroom, the Public Protector said the conduct of the of
the provincial education department was exemplary.
�The swift justice and empathy in which the matter was
addressed is a lesson to be emulated in legal advice to the
state in other matters where government has acted wrongfully
or unjustly,� she said.
Quoting former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, the Public
Protector told the gathering that the importance of her
office was especially clear, where there was a desperate
need for basic human needs such as food, drinking water,
health care, housing, education and social security.
�Our countries cannot bear the improper allocation of
government resources. Having a Public Protector with a
mandate to investigate and publicly report in government
administration is essential,� she said, adding that lawyers
had an important role to ensure that this happened.
The Public Protector added that she was interested in
hearing from legal professionals on whether they agreed that
her office existed to curb excesses in the exercise of state
power by exacting accountability.
She also asked if lawyers they agreed that the Public
Protector, as an ombudsman office, existed to investigate
and correct administrative injustices in the exercise of
public power and to ensure that public power and resources
are always used in accordance with the law and the public
interest.
Lawyers, the Public Protector said, had always been at the
forefront of the struggle for human rights and freedom and
this made the legal community an important stakeholder for
her office.
She specifically highlighted that her office interfaced with
lawyers as representatives of complainants, representatives
of the state and that her office often referred matters to
the legal profession to provide pro bono legal assistance to
poor people that her office cannot assist.
She invited the legal profession to work with her office to
help government to always do the right thing when called to
account for its administrative actions, giving the people a
voice to engage meaningfully with those they have entrusted
with public power.
End
Issued by: Public Protector South Africa
For more information, contact:
Kgalalelo Masibi
Senior Manager: Outreach, Education and Communication
Public Protector South Africa
Tel: 012 366 7006
Cell: 079 507 0399
Email:
[email protected]
Website:
www.publicprotector.org
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