Madonsela: Zuma had a hand in Mkhwebane’s appointment – report
Madonsela reportedly suspects there is 'a deal' between Mkhwebane and the president.
Advocate Thuli Madonsela speaks about ethical leardeship in sustainable economies at the 2016 ABSIP Conference held at Sandton Convertional Centre,J ohannesburg, 08 November 2016, the conference centred on the theme Economic Transformation for Social Change. Picture: Nigel Sibanda.
Madonsela has come out to apologise to the presidency following its statement that President Jacob Zuma was “outraged” at being named by former public protector Thuli Madonsela.
Madonsela had said she felt she was being targeted in revenge by the president, though the new public protector’s office, and the State Security Agency (SSA) in revenge for her investigations of Zuma.
The former public protector has taken issue with the manner in which she has been asked to cough up about R470 000 in relation to a state BMW that was in an accident during her term.
She told The Sunday Independent that although she apologised to the presidency, “the matter is about Mr Zuma as a person”.
Madonsela revealed she had “a suspicion about how the public protector was appointed”, reported the paper.
She alleged that she and others in her office already knew that Busisiwe Mkhwebane had been selected as her successor before the process to appoint a new public protector was concluded.
Madonsela, who is now studying for a year at Harvard in the US, alleges that she saw potential evidence that Zuma may have been the one to nominate Mkhwebane.
“Did [Mkhwebane] not tell the staff member [someone allegedly earmarked by Mkhwebane as her future chief of staff] that she [Mkhwebane] had been nominated by Zuma?” reported the Sunday paper.
It continued to quote Madonsela: “I suspect there’s a deal, and that suspicion was confirmed when his [Zuma’s] lawyer insisted on that the new public protector might have a different approach to the matter and that this matter must be deferred to her.”
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Madonsela was referring to the fact that Zuma and his legal team would like Mkhwebane to continue investigations into state capture instead of seeing the chief justice appoint a judge to head an commission of inquiry into the matter.
Presidency spokesperson Bongani Ngqulunga reportedly told the paper that Zuma had not had anything to do with Mkhwebane’s appointment.
Mkhwebane, a former SSA analyst, also responded to the accusations against her, saying she had nothing personal against Madonsela and she was not a Zuma stooge.
“The Government Gazette has claimed more than R400 000 from us for the car that got involved in an accident while in her care. The matter is not personal.”
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