Public Protector

Comes with unclean governance, but he's caught with an unclean governance.

Of course, the Treasury, what is it, the Reserve Bank protects him, the SARS protects him, the Public Protector protects him.

And then we have to go to Parliament and all these other things, and we have to spend time.

And in the midst of all that is Madanga.

Mm.

The Public Protector's office said they can't handle these issues because they belong to the Public Service Commission.

I'm going back and forth.

Mm.

Proud of you.

After a public protector investigation revealed a faulty water meter.

Now, if there are three words in life...

Can I tell you something? Learn this about me this morning.

And all these service delivery protests are totally misconceived.

What they should have been doing was going to the Public Protector and the Human Rights Commission and saying, excuse me, there's no water in the tap in Portobello.

Please...

Get something done about this.

So in this interview, I'm going to ask you about different key ways that you think the city is failing.

Obviously, we're going to talk about the Public Protector's Report on how the city of Cape Town was not providing tap water access to large areas of the city of Cape Town.

We're going to talk about Tafelburg, because the city of Cape Town lost in the Constitutional Court over a piece of land in the sought-after sea point that the constitutional court that ruled that the city of Cape Town was not doing enough to use that piece of land to undo the legacy of spatial apartheid.

And so we're gonna talk about all of that and basically how I think that you, well, your perspective on how the DA is failing many Capetonians within the city of Cape Town in the less wealthy areas.

which found that in the selling of a sought-after piece of land that used to have a school on it on Seapoint Main Road in a very affluent Atlantic seaboard suburb of Cape Town, which had been sold to a Jewish day school, the finding was that the city of Cape Town acted unconstitutionally because they did not sell that land to create affordable, low-cost housing in the most sought-after areas of the city.

That's triple-headed Hydra, head number one.

Head number two, the public protector finding that the city of Cape Town had not... provided all the taps, water access in areas of, I think it was Khayelitsha that they said they had.

And thirdly, that the city of Cape Town lost their super clean audit.

SABC News, independent and impartial.

The Democratic Alliance says it will take new complaints against the sport, arts and culture minister, Gaten McKenzie, to the Public Protector.

The DA alleges that public resources may have been used in ways that strengthened the minister's political position and says McKenzie has repeatedly avoided parliamentary accountability.

DA spokesperson on sport, arts and culture, Leah Potgieter, will be at the Public Protector's head office this morning to formally lodge the complaint.

We're joined on the line by Leah Portgitter to unpack what the DA is alleging, what evidence it has, and what it wants the Public Protector to investigate.

A very good morning to you and welcome, ma'am.

Good morning to you too and to your listeners.

It's about active involvement in a political party and then having active involvement in a government institution.

Mm.

But similarly, the Public Protector also has a role in the whole ecosystem in overseeing the environment-

Mm

... for the purposes of people, for example, doing things that are outside the legislative framework or actually not implementing the laws as provided for-

We're trying to get through to her out in Stellenbosch.

And the reason, if you've just joined us, that we really want to talk to her about is her secure and comfort report, which she did when she was public protector, when she was taking a closer look at what happened with the upgrades at former President Jacob Zuma's home in Nkandla.

And we're doing this prompted by news that the architect who is overseeing the project, Minente Makanya, there's a ruling by the special tribunal of the special investigating unit saying that he's responsible for payments.

of 147 million rand.

Great to have you with us.

I mean, the first thing that struck me when I heard about the penalty levied against Mr Makanya was surely it can't be all on him.

And I'm wondering from your extensive digging into this issue and the rest of the team that you had with you at the Public Protector's Office, what was your first response? I mean, it does seem a lot to lay on the shoulders of one man.

No.

The Commission did not originate with President Cyril Ramaphosa, that distinction is important, especially because part of the argument I want to make concerns Ramaphosa's tendency to govern through commissions, panels, and advisory bodies.

The origins of the Zona Commission lie in former Public Protector Thule Madoncela's 2016 report, State of Capture.

That report dealt with allegations that the Gupta family had exercised improper influence over Jacob Zuma, that is of course President Jacob Zuma, members of his cabinet and important decisions inside government.

It raised questions about ministerial appointments, government contracts and the relationship between political leaders and private business interests.