Malema calls on deputy public protector to show ‘collegiality and professionalism’

Deputy Public Protector Kevin Malunga found himself having to defend himself against tweets from both Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) deputy president Floyd Shivambu and leader Julius Malema.

Shivambu accused him of “playing to the gallery” and trying to “distance himself from the public protector with the hope that he’ll find favour with the establishment”, while Malema called on him to show “collegiality and professionalism”.

This after Malunga spoke out about what he saw as the problems in the office of the public protector on an eNCA interview on Monday night.

“There are a lot of things I think the office has gotten wrong,” Malunga said.

“For example, I think we should be consulting each other a lot more, I don’t know anything about the Absa report sitting here as deputy public protector,” he continued, referring to a report finding that the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) had illegally offered a financial lifeboat to Bankorp (which was later absorbed into Absa). The report was later overturned, with Mkhwebane forced to pay 15% of the SARB’s legal costs personally.

The revelation of Malunga’s lack of knowledge on the Absa report led to Shivambu accusing him of trying to do what he had done under former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela – distance himself from the office.

Shivambu was referring to an incident in 2013 which saw Malunga write to the parliamentary portfolio committee, which conducts oversight over the office of the public protector, to distance himself from views expressed by Madonsela in parliament.

Malunga responded that Shivambu should “watch the whole interview before jumping to conclusions”.

“My interview dealt with the entire work of the office of the public protector and how to build confidence. I have no one to please. I am done and will be moving to other things in any event,” he continued.

READ MORE: When Busisiwe Mkhwebane goes from ‘I’ to ‘we’

The rest of the interview saw Malunga denying any hostility between himself and Mkhwebane, saying any problems in their office offered “lessons to be learned in future for the institution to grow” and saying that he believed his office was succeeding in making sure “the most vulnerable in society are protected”.

He said the office tried “by all means to make sure these reports are litigation proof”, and defended the office’s reliance on complaints from anonymous sources, saying this was necessary to protect whistleblowers.

He also said what he “would guard against from the public is an opportunistic approach where everyone joins the choir” in condemning his office’s work.

Malunga had said earlier that the high profile cases the media was preoccupied with involving his office represented only a tiny portion of the work it did.

After saying if there was “any alleged impropriety by a state organ that results in unfairness or prejudice to a person we have a duty to investigate,” Malunga said that “these high profile cases constitute less than 1% of the work the institution does”.

“I don’t lose sleep over politicians,” he continued.

“I don’t lose sleep over Pravin Gordhan or Cyril Ramphosa.

“But I do lose sleep over that gogo who says her pension hasn’t been paid seven years down the line, over that refugee whose permit is missing, over that tender that has led to a service delivery process, when I go to Kopela Village and the people tell me they have not had water for six months.

“That’s what we do 90% of the time.”

Collegiality and professionalism chief. You did the same ka @ThuliMadonsela3

— Julius Sello Malema (@Julius_S_Malema) July 30, 2019

The problem with Adv. @KevinMalunga is that he always plays to the gallery. When the Zuma group started attacking Thuli Madonsela, he did exactly what he wants to do now: i.e. Distance himself from the @PublicProtector with the hope that he’ll find favour with the establishment.

— Floyd Shivambu (@FloydShivambu) July 29, 2019

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