What we learned from Mkhwebane’s buddy interview with Madonsela

Yesterday, public protector Advocate Busiswe Mkhwebane and former public protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela caught up in a heart-to-heart on PowerFM 98.7. The insightful interview covered Madonsela’s upbringing, their perspectives on women abuse – and even their admiration for each other, quashing rumours of animosity. Here’s our top 5 takeaways.

The full interview spans over an hour in length, and gives a powerful look into how these women view the world.

1. Thuli grew up in Johannesburg

Thuli was born in Johannesburg and raised in Soweto. She studied in Swaziland and joined politics as a teenager. “I grew up in 7^th Day Adventist Church, and at 19, I was in the Trade Union movement, then in the Civic Movement [formation of SA Youth Congress], UDF and more.”

2. Her pastimes are pretty normal.

She’s a human, and her favourite pastime is music.

“I’ll be sitting here with Mozart, listening to Beethoven. I also listen to the kinds of music my children listen to – occasionally house, occasionally kwaito.”

Who? you ask. “I love Black Coffee. I love Liquideep.”

3. She’s currently busy at Harvard.

Madonsela is an advanced leadership initiative fellow, and her classmates are former “high-flying heads of major corporations”.

Her project is on social justice, and she wants to focus on creating a social justice centre, something the University of Stellenbosch has approached her on.

“I’m working on a social justice impact analysis … I think when we implement policies and legislation we often don’t look at how it will impact (for example, someone named Gugu Dhlamini ) … How it will impact on her child, on the domestic worker, on a person with disabilities …”

4. What does she regret in her time as public protector?

“Investigation is a skill. I found the system being geared for administrative justice investigations, and then we stumbled into mechanisms for investigating corruption, using forensic pathology. But we were building it as we were going.”

Another thing she would’ve changed if she had the time to was to create complaints mechanisms within government departments to assist the average South African better.

5. When asked if she could officially hand over the position to Busiswe Mkhwebane…

She admitted she already handed over about 10 months ago.

“I left on the 14^th October, and as far as I’m concerned, there is obviously no reason for any animosity, as there was none between me and my predecessors. They were part of my social support. And as I’ve indicated to you previously I’m available to assist in any manner I can, but I can never insert myself in any system. It would be wrong.”

Listen to the full interview here:

https://soundcloud.com/powerfm987/woman-to-woman-adv-thuli-mandonsela-and-adv-busiswe-mkhwebane