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New Public Protector: SA waits anxiously

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Parliament’s ad hoc committee tasked with finding a new Public Protector is today expected to decide on a candidate to replace Thuli Madonsela.

Last week, the committee whittled the 14 remaining candidates down to five. In a relatively short meeting, MPs called for certain candidates to “fall”. Candidates including Madonsela’s current deputy Kevin Malunga and former NPA asset forfeiture unit head Willie Hofmeyr did not make the cut.

The five candidates are judges Siraj Desai and Sharise Weiner, advocates Busisiwe Mkhwebane, Muvhango Lukhaimane, and Professor Bongani Majola. Whoever receives the most support will be tabled for endorsement in the National Assembly by August 31. Madonsela’s seven-year term ends in mid-October. - News24

Click on the candidates name to view their CV

1Judge Siraj Desa

Desai practised under Dullah Omar, South Africa’s first minister of justice post-1994. In 1996 he was appointed deputy chairperson of the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa. He was the chairperson of the ANC branch in Woodstock, Cape Town, and was also one of the founding members of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers. 

2. Judge Sharise Weiner  

Weiner was an advocate in Johannesburg and was a member of the bar in Lesotho, Wales and England. She specialised in corporate law and served as a commissioner of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration part-time. She also set up a non-profit organisation, Free the World, that distributes blankets to the needy. 

3. Busisiwe Mkhwebane 

Mkwhebane is a director in the home affairs department. She has a B Proc and LLB from the University of the North and a diploma in corporate law, as well as a diploma in tax law from the University of Johannesburg. She has seven years’ experience as an investigator in the office of the Public Protector and has acted as provincial representative. 

4. Muvhango Lukhaimane 

Lukhaimane is adjudicator of the government’s pension fund. She has a B Juris degree from the University of Venda, an LLB from the University of Pretoria, an LLM from Unisa and a MBA from the University of the Witwatersrand. She has worked at Eskom’s pension and provident fund, as well as at Sanlam. Between 2005 and 2012 she held various positions in the state security department. 

5. Professor Bongani Majola 

Majola has an LLM degree from the University of Harvard and was a director of the Legal Resource Centre. Majola was dean of the faculty of law at the University of Limpopo between 1989 and 1996. He served as deputy chief prosecutor at the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2003. He was nominated for the position of Public Protector in 2002 but declined the nomination.  

Additional reporting by Alicestine October, Media24 Parliamentary Bureau

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