‘I’m out’: Thuli Madonsela takes her final bow as Public Protector

Thuli Madonsela dropped the mic with the words “I’m out”, addressing her successor Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

Madonsela was addressing the media in her final press conference as Public Protector. Her term ends at midnight.

Madonsela shared the results of five outstanding reports from her term but the glaring elephant in the room was the missing “state capture report”, which has now been preserved and reserved for Mkhwebane to deal with.

“Given that an application or a notice of intention to apply for an interdict is not an interdict, I decided not to release the report because it’s good practice. When people have applied for an interdict it doesn’t make sense to make it difficult to make the interdict matter,” she said.

Madonsela said she disagreed with those who said the state capture report was not an important one.

“It was a matter which caused a lot of fracture for the country,” Madonsela said.

She said the office ran out of time due to lack of funding and being understaffed, but added that her office had no objection to the hold on the report and had voluntarily agreed.

Madonsela told the media that while she had said it would be a two-phased process she never said there would be two reports. She said the report indicated what phase two should be, however she was not at liberty to discuss it due to the hold on the report.

The outgoing Public Protector said the report that would be in the hands of the speaker of Parliament was the final version based on all the evidence she had.

She did stress however that she hoped people would also focus on the other reports released today.

“What we may view as small is the biggest fight someone has fought,” Madonsela said.

One such report was that of a man’s case against Home Affairs called “A life on pause”.

The man was South African – he moved to South Africa when he was young, but was unable to get confirmation from home affairs of his citizenship.

Madonsela said this was a problem for the man as his children were unable to apply for financial support for university studies. She used the example of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, which was only available to South African citizens. The man she said, even camped outside their offices at some stage.

Madonsela said he was also unable to get a job due to his inability to provide the correct papers.

The Public Protector’s office has asked home affairs to apologise to the man and said his issue had been sorted out.

She said she hoped that this matter would result in other people having their issues dealt with speedily.

Madonsela summarised four other reports, which were on an unfair dismissal issue, an improper board resignation in Mpumalanga, a whistle-blower and killings at a hostel in Kwazulu Natal.

After leaving office Madonsela said she would be back to protecting the public without being the Public Protector. She said her entire career had been about helping civil society.

But, Madonsela said, this would have to wait for a year due to a sabbatical she would be taking. In 2018 she will be at the bar and then she would also teach at a university – which she has not named.

She added she would also be writing a book during her sabbatical.

“I’m sure we will all be writing books,” she laughed.

The Public Protector said South Africa was a vibrant democracy and said it was important for her office to do its job well. She said if the team ever told the truth wrongly then it was not because they intended to but because they had interpreted the law as such.

“Just because we deal with underhanded people it does not mean that we too should be underhanded,” Madonsela said.