Johannesburg - The ANC does not want to see Public
Protector Thuli Madonsela vacate her office before the end of her term but she
must do her job correctly, party secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on
Tuesday.
"We don't want to remove the public protector, we
want the public protector to do her work correctly and behave correctly,"
Mantashe told reporters in Johannesburg.
"We have no interest in removing her. She must
finish her term but she must not abuse that term."
Mantashe said there was a sense that Madonsela was
abusing her office and was always trying to get the attention of the media by
saying things that were not in any report or being investigated anywhere.
"That is what we are talking about. That is why we
are not attacking the public protector or her office but we are attacking the
behaviour that is wrong," he said.
Mantashe then turned his attention to the leaking to the
media of Madonsela's reports. He said the leaks could not be attributed to
divisions within the ANC.
The statement follows Madonsela's claim that a letter she
had written to President Jacob Zuma was leaked by a senior ANC official to the
media.
Madonsela reportedly wrote to Zuma last week about the
spending of R246m on security upgrades at his Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal homestead.
In her letter, she cautioned Zuma he was second-guessing
her recommendations that he should repay part of the money spent on features
unrelated to security, such as a swimming pool, cattle kraal, amphitheatre, and
visitors' centre.
In his reply to her report on Nkandla, Zuma indicated
Police Minister Nathi Nhleko needed to determine if he should pay back any of
the R246m.
Madonsela wrote in her letter: "I am concerned that
the decision you have made regarding the police minister gives him power he
does not have under law, which is to review my decision taken in pursuit of the
powers of administrative scrutiny I am given... by the Constitution."
Madonsela said on Monday that she had reason to believe a
senior ANC official leaked her letter to the media.
Mantashe countered: "The office of the public
protector leaks every report she writes and blames that on the divisions within
the ANC."
Leaking to the
media
Mantashe said it had become the norm that all public
protector reports would be leaked to the media before she had even released
them.
"I know that every report she has been involved
in... I'm going to read about it in the newspaper before it is released.
"That can never be because of divisions in the ANC.
We deal with our own divisions but the public protector's office must be
watertight. You can't leak information and blame the ANC divisions," he
said.
Mantashe and his deputy Jesse Duarte continued hammering
the issue of leaks and Duarte questioned the manner in which the explanations
for the leaks were given, but individuals not named.
"Each leak is glibly explained away. Who is that
senior official who leaked the letter? There is nothing unfortunate about the
leaks, they are timed and deliberate," Duarte said.
Duarte and Mantashe questioned the timing of the leaking
of the letter and the heckling of Zuma in Parliament by members of the Economic
Freedom Fighters, after the EFF asked when Zuma would pay back the Nkandla
money. Proceedings had to be stopped for the day and riot police were called
in.
"A leak at the same time when the EFF undermines the
people of SA is too much of a coincidence," said Duarte.
Mantashe called on Madonsela not to get involved in
politics and to stop behaving like a political institution.
He said the public protector should get out of the
political space and leave political parties to sort themselves out.
On the defensive
Madonsela then took to twitter to defend herself against
the barrage of attacks by the pair. She stood her ground and questioned how
accountability was weakening democracy.
"Can someone please say how exactly is the deepening
of accountability a weakening of parliamentary democracy... Let's face th
truth. What's embarrassing the country is attempts to subvert the rule of law
& not administrative scrutiny [sic]," she said.
Madonsela said if everyone respected the Constitution and
the law, there would be no crisis in the country.
She said politicians should stop interfering with her
work.
"Administrative scrutiny is a reality if our
constitutional democracy. It's not a political exercise & Politicians
should stop interfering [sic]," she tweeted.
Madonsela said the country was in trouble when
politicians meddled in the investigation processes, leaked documents then cried
foul.
The EFF on Tuesday denied any link to the leaking of the
letter and their heckling of Zuma.
Spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said the ANC was trying to
detract attention from the Nkandla issue.
"The ANC has lost the public relations war and now
they have to concoct a story to defer the issue that is on the table, which is
Nkandla," he said.
Ndlozi accused Zuma of being the one who leaked the
document to the media.
"If there is anyone with a history of leaking
information it is Jacob Zuma to distract the public's attention as we saw with
the Mzilikazi [waAfrika] story," he said.
In his book, waAfrika claims that Zuma leaked information
about Bulelani Ngcuka being a former apartheid spy.
Ndlozi called on the ANC to stop attacking Madonsela's
office.
"We condemn in the strongest way the continuing
intimidation and war that has been declared on the public protector," he
said.
