Address by Public Protector Adv Thuli Madonsela on the occasion of a media briefing at Court Classique Hotel in Pretoria on Thursday, 10 June 2010.
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Chairperson, Ms Doreen Gough
Members of the media;
Deputy Public Protector Adv Mamiki Shai;
Chief Executive Officer Mr Themba Mthethwa;
Senior Managers in My Office;
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is an honour to reprise this platform which you
generously afforded me shortly after my appointment.
As a team, we are particularly honoured that you
considered Public Protector affairs to be newsworthy
on a critical day such today. In less than 36 hours
FIFA’s first World Cup on the African continent, will
be kicking off. Within minutes thereafter, we’ll experience
another historical moment when our national pride, Bafana
Bafana will vanquish Mexico.
As previously promised, my office intends to have these
media briefings every three months. This is a valuable
platform and opportunity to provide and you and hopefully
members of the public with a brief account on the progress
my office is making in delivering on its constitutional
mandate and on the promises we have made since my assumption
of office.
Chairperson;
We specifically want to account on the progress we have made
in delivering on the promises made to Parliament and the people
of South Africa since I took office in October last year.
The starting point was a thorough mandate analysis in response
to concerns that you and other stakeholders, including Parliament,
had raised about the office’s full utilisation of its constitutional
mandate. This process yielded two key outcomes, namely:
- a book entitled “Constitutional and Legislative Mandate of the Public Protector”; and
- a revised mandate which clarifies that the Public Protector’s power and responsibility
transcend investigating and incorporate the duty “to take appropriate remedial action” (section 182 (1)(c)
of the Constitution).
The revised mandate became the key driver behind a process we then
undertook to review our institutional vision and Medium Term Strategic
Plan. The outcome of this process was a draft ten year vision, Public
Protector 2020 and Medium Term Strategic Plan: 2010-13. This was then
subjected to extensive stakeholder consultations that commenced with
document circulation and invitation of stakeholder inputs in December
2009. We then had face-to-face stakeholder consultations in all nine
provinces and a final one in Pretoria at the end of March 2010.
I thank you and other stakeholder once more for the valuable inputs
that shaped the final product, Public Protector Vision 2020 and Medium
Term Strategic Plan: 210-2013. The valuable insights we gained from this
process affirmed the Zulu proverb that says “Injobo ithungelwa ebandla”,
which means a successful project requires collaboration.
The purpose of today’s interface is accordingly twofold. We seek to provide
feedback on delivery against our constitutional mandate and promises, the
focus being investigations and reports finalised during the period under review.
We also seek to obtain feedback from you and the public on our performance against
the mandate and promises.
You will recall that when I took office, I undertook to strike a balance between
the bread and butter cases that impact people’s every day quality of life and the
cases that deal with integrity and good governance. I also promised to strike a
balance between promptness and rigor. This was premised on the understanding that
the value of the institution of the Ombudsman, which is what the Public Protector
is all about, is to promote access to justice for persons that feel wronged by the
state bearing in mind the time and expense involved in pursuing justice through the
courts, while transforming the state to promote good governance. I also undertook to
enhance access for all and earn the trust of all persons and communities.
The strategic planning has crystallised our institutional commitments into the following
three firm promises to the people of South Africa and Parliament:
- to be accessible to and trusted by all persons and communities;
- Prompt remedial action; and
- Promoting good governance in the conduct of all state affairs
These service delivery promises, which are our strategic objectives for the next three years,
are backed by two corporate objectives that seek to renew business systems and processes to
ensure efficiency and effectiveness, while leveraging our people and stakeholder relationships
to generate an optimal performance and service focused culture.
Our service delivery promises are further anchored on our new vision which is to be:
“A trusted, effective and accessible Public Protector that rights administrative wrongs
and consistently acts with integrity to ensure fair, accountable and responsive decision-making,
service and good governance in all state affairs and public administration in every sphere of government.”
The ultimate goal, as we’ve said before, is to play our role of strengthening democracy by
ensuring that the state is accountable, operates with integrity and is responsive to needs
of all of the people of South Africa regardless of diverse circumstances and needs.
Today’s feedback primarily focuses on reports issued since I took office six months ago.
You’ll notice that there are many reports. Today we are specifically releasing 18 Reports.
However, in future as we live up to our promise of prompt remedial action, there’ll be
fewer reports. We’ll focus on using the ADR powers given by the Public Protector Act
(PPA) and other mandate statutes, to settle so that complainants can be assured of both
promptness and a concrete remedy. We will only use a report as a last resort where the
competent organ of state refuses to accept my findings or there’s a disagreement on
appropriate remedial action.
We’ve already started to prioritise complaints resolution, primarily through the early
resolution mechanism established in November 2009 and general use of the ADR mandate under
the PPA and the PDA.
Needless to say, we will not settle any conduct and/or integrity matters, without a report
where there is proof of wrongdoing. This includes the mandate in terms of the Executive Members’
Ethics Act (EMEA), where the Public Protector is compelled by law to investigate and report with
recommendations.
The reports that we release today provides feedback on how we are addressing the promise of prompt
remedial action while transforming the state to promote good governance. At the heart of the approach
we are adopting is that there should be justice for every administrative wrong and that there should be
no impunity for improper conduct. We also seek to ensure that all contact with the state strengthens good
governance and respect for the rule of the law to avoid future similar service failures and/or improper
conduct.
I must state upfront that some of the early cases do not fully comply with the promise of rigor and
righting all administrative wrongs. But as we go forward, there are very clear improvements. The
following provides a few examples you will find among the 18cases released today and other key activities
we have undertaken during the last six months.
Accessibility and trustworthiness
The Public Protector is compelled by Section 182 (4) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa
to be accessible to all persons and communities. We consider accessibility as transcending physical proximity
and as incorporating trustworthiness.
Access enhancing activities in the last six months have included stakeholder engagements that have sought to
elicit the needs and views of all communities with a view to enhancing our trustworthiness and responsiveness.
You’ll note this when our annual report is released. We’ve also continued to add more regional offices to improve
the proximity of our services to historically marginalized communities, particularly, particularly rural communities.
For example, we opened a Regional Office in New Castle, KwaZulu-Natal in December, 2009 and another in Phuthaditjhaba
in the Free State, in April; this year. This brings the number of regional offices to 9 and the total number of Public
Protector offices or service points to 19. We will be opening another regional office in Mthatha, shortly, although we
are struggling with accommodation. Our budget is also an impediment with regard to effective access and as such some of
the provinces only have a provincial office as the only service centre.
The use of Mobile Clinics and the media, particularly radio, also continues and is being enhanced. We are also
leveraging stakeholder relations to expand platforms for marketing our services. In this regard, we also thank
you for the support you provide. Stakeholders that have offered platforms and other forms of assistance include
Traditional Authorities, the South African Police, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), some
of the provincial law societies and one provincial Bar Counsel.
In October this year we’ll launch the Public Protector Good Governance Week, we promised earlier. The idea is to
have a focus week during which all eyes are on this institution and what it does to strengthen our constitutional
democracy and how it does that. We’ve chosen October because it is the 15th Anniversary of the Public Protector.
Advocate Selby Baqwa was appointed on the 15th of October in 1995.
With regard to projecting ourselves as a trustworthy institution, I am of the view that ordinary people with warranted
complaints against government but that can’t afford legal fees to challenge the state should see us as a dependable
institution to help them fight their cause. Independence and impartiality are a must in this regard not only as a reality
but also in terms of perceptions.
Prompt remedial action
Through our ADR focus and the Early Resolution Mechanism I alluded to earlier,
we ensure that all the bread-and-butter cases such as those concerning social
grants, identity documents, civil pensions of retired public servants and appeals
to the High Court are resolved within a day and up to three months. Our ADR powers
of conciliation, mediation and negotiation are primarily used for this purpose. The
important thing is that the Complainants don’t just get a report but get a rectification
of the service that had failed before we came into the picture.
The driving belief behind our approach to righting administrative wrongs is restorative
justice. When service fails and citizens hurt, we seek to restore complainants to as close
as possible to where they would have been but for the service failure or improper conduct by
the state. You’ll agree with me that people cannot eat reports or use them as IDs.
Statistics from my office show that between November and December 2009, 254 of cases received
(91.7%) were resolved within a record period of three months.
Between January and March 2010, 137 of the cases received were resolved within a months,
123 were finalised within two months while 37 matters were put to rest within one day.
I believe that our work not only brings a speedy end to the suffering of our people but will
also helps government in its own quest for ending poverty and poor service delivery. It will
also contribute towards government’s achievement of its own service goals, including Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
An example in this regard is the case of a pensioner who after 41 years of service reached a dead
end when trying to get his pension pay-out from government. He was told that his pension had been
paid to someone else. It took my office’s intervention to release his pay while the state sorted
out its mistakes as he was an innocent victim.
Who can forget the plight of a 22-year-old from Alexandra, who missed out on a bursary to further his
studies after sitting for matric examinations in 2005 because the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal
failed to release his matric results because, according to the Department of Home Affairs, he had a duplicate
ID. Within a month of this office’s Early Resolution (ER) intervention, he got the ID. However, we are still
dealing with the systemic service failure that this case is merely a symptom of. In this regard, I’ve written
to the Minister of Home Affairs and recommended a specific systemic intervention. The intervention seeks to
balance the human rights of the Duplicate ID victims whose lives have come to a stand still, with the responsibilities
of the Department of Home Affairs regarding the verification of identities. There are many other cases that you will
note in the supplied CD, where ER and ADR are delivering on the promise of prompt remedial action.
Good Governance and Integrity
Good governance remains important. This is pursued primarily under our Executive Members’
Ethics Act (EAMEA) mandate and mandates in terms of the Protected Disclosures Act (PDA)
and the Protection of Access to Information Act (PAIA). Again there are several cases in
this regard. One of them involves a Premier who failed to follow internal human resources
policies. We’ll be releasing more reports in the next few days.
It is also important to note that in every investigation we address the specific complaint
and any systemic service, governance and administrative failures.
Included among the reports released today is are cases dealing with municipal services,
where we have found the state wanting and ordered remedial action that incorporates
compensation for consequential damages. A case in point is one where the municipality
wrongfully awarded a title deed to a property belonging to a complainant. Another notable
case involves failure by a provincial Department of Education to provide decent classrooms
and toilet facilities.
A provincial case dealing with waste management combines issues of prompt remedial action
and broader government responsibilities regarding environmental rights. In this particular
case we settled on the immediate concerns of the complainant and made recommendations regarding
the need for proper hospital waste management in province concerned.
As we’ve said before, a lot of service delivery failures a symptom of systemic governance and
administrative failures within organs of state.
Chairperson;
In the words on my counterpart in the Canadian province of Ontario, “I have had to make some
very tough decisions, to refocus the office....” in the last six months. Fortunately I’ve been
working with an amazing, professional and hard working team. The support of the public, media
community and government has also been outstanding.
I’m the first to say that there’s still a huge gap between the promise and our action, particularly
on the issue of promptness and rigor.
With the kind of team I have and the restructuring we’ve just done, I believe we’ll soon be making the
difference we seek to make. I’ve also met my counterpart in the UK, the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman.
We have agreed to enter into a bilateral agreement that will see our institutions operate as partners to
improve our services.
Thank you once more for the privilege to address you. Fact sheets of all the reports are in your packs with
a limited number of hard copies available for browsing.
Finally, let’s support Africa in addition to our unwavering support to Bafana Bafana.
Go Bafana Bafana Go!
Go Africa Go!
Thank you
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