Public protector search starts

MPs call for wider participation in quest for Madonsela replacement

MPs want a more far reaching public participation process when shortlisting and interviewing the country’s fourth public protector to ensure transparency, before Thuli Madonsela’s term ends in October.

Parliament’s search for a legal mind who should ideally be a qualified attorney or advocate, have lectured law in university for more than 10 years, or be a judge of the high court, officially began yesterday as MPs gathered for the first time to find Madonsela’s replacement.

MPs discussed how wide reaching the public participation should be and also got legal advice on what constituted a “fit and proper” person to fill the post. DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach raised the issue of confidentiality.

“I am very concerned about the fact that no provision is made for extensive public participation and I really think we need to ventilate that issue a bit m o re , ” Breytenbach said.

EFF leader Julius Malema told the meeting the point of public participation still needed to be clarified by parliament’s content and legal advisers.

“Is there anything wrong and to what extent can we involve the public participation beyond the traditional way of nomination?” he said. “We see civil society, but what else can we do to broaden the participation of our people?

“When we are elected by them, we then assume we eat and sleep on their behalf and therefore they are participating, which is wrong.”

He asked whether it would be wrong to publish, after nomination, the CVs of those nominated and to let the public make objections and comments. He also called for the process to be televised for transparency.

The ANC’s Bongani Bongo said parliament was not dealing with the issue of the public protector for the first time, so the public participation was generally already covered here.

He said parliament had gone as far as setting up a multiparty committee to deal with the process. Committee chairwoman Dr Makhosi Khoza said case law dictated that the matter should not be confidential because the process was public.

“All committees of parliament are public. These processes must be transparent,” Khoza said. She said the meeting was primarily about finalising the committee’s programme going forward.

Committee content adviser Christine Silkstone said the public protector must be a fit and proper person.

The person also had to be a South African citizen and must be either a judge of the high court, or have been admitted as an advocate or attorney that had practised for at least 10 years. A person who has been an MP or MPL for at least 10 years can also apply.