Address by Public Protector Adv Thuli
Madonsela on the occasion of an outreach clinic at Bungheni
Community Hall in Makhado, Limpopo
24 March 2010
Programme Director,
Councillors,
Community Leaders,
Members of the media,
Provincial Representative of the Public Protector in
Limpopo; Adv Sphelo Hamilton Samuel,
Ladies and gentlemen,
All protocol observed;
Let me to seize this opportunity to extend my warmest
greetings to the people of Makhado and neighbouring areas.
As one of our valued stakeholders, your presence here means
a lot to us.
Before I go any further, Programme Director, allow me to
recognise the fact that our meeting this morning comes only
three days after our country took time off to commemorate
one of the most important days in our calendar, March 21,
better known as the Human Rights Day.
On that day, we remembered the 69 people who lost their
lives and a further 180 who sustained injuries when
apartheid security forces opened fire on unarmed and
peaceful protestors, who were marching against pass laws in
Sharpville, Gauteng 50 years ago.
It was this and many other watershed moments that paved the
way for the constitutional democracy we all enjoy today.
In fact, it was in Sharpville, 36 years after the massacre,
where South Africa’s Constitution, signed by the country
first democratically-elected president, the iconic Nelson
Mandela, was symbolically launched.
Ladies and gentlemen, it was this very Constitution that
established institutions such as the Public Protector to
support and strengthen our hard- earned constitutional
democracy.
Programme Director;
Our meeting this morning is part of a nearly two-month long
stakeholder consultative process, which began in Gauteng
during the second week of February.
Since then, I have been spending up to two days in
provinces, meeting stakeholders such as provincial
administrations, local government, political parties, other
Chapter 9 institutions, traditional authorities, statutory
bodies, state-owned enterprises, the media, professional
bodies, trade unions and other civil society entities. I
also met with communities like you.
The purpose of my meetings with stakeholders is to introduce
myself; find out from stakeholders what do they expect from
the Public Protector; and establish whether or not our
internal interpretation of the constitutional mandate of the
Public Protector is the same as that of stakeholders. I have
also been asking stakeholders to comment on a draft vision
of what we seek to achieve as the Public Protector over the
next ten years.
In a meeting such as the one we are having today, where I
interact directly with communities, the focus is slightly
different. Our focal point is on the services of the Public
Protector. This we do in a bid to see to it that your human
rights are not disregarded.
As I stand here today, I am aware that most of you know all
about the Public Protector. However, for the benefit of one
or two people in our midst, who may be hearing about this
institution for the first time, I will briefly outline what
is the Public Protector and what this institution does so
that we can all understand how it supports and strengthens
this constitutional democracy.
As I have already mentioned, the Public Protector was
established by the Constitution. It is one of several
institutions established by Chapter 9 of the Constitution to
support and strengthen constitutional democracy. We
ordinarily refer to these institutions as Chapter 9
Institutions. However, each of these institutions plays a
distinct and unique role in supporting and strengthening
constitutional democracy.
Like all Chapter 9 institutions, the Public Protector is
independent and subject only to the Constitution and the
law. The Public Protector is independent of government and
political parties and must be impartial and exercise its
powers without fear, favour or prejudice.
Accountable to the National Assembly, the Public protector
must report on activities and performance of its functions
to the Assembly at least once a year. No person or organ of
state may interfere with the functioning of the Public
Protector.
The Public Protector is mandated by the Constitution and
national legislation to investigate any conduct in state
affairs that is alleged or suspected to be improper or to
result in any impropriety or prejudice and to report on that
conduct and take appropriate remedial action.
There are two key pieces of legislation that regulate the
operations of the Public Protector. These are the Public
Protector Act of 1994, and the Executive Members Ethics Act.
The powers under the Public Protector Act cover the conduct
of all public authorities except court decisions. The
Executive Members Ethics Act empowers the Public Protector
to investigate all allegations of violations of the Act and
Code by the members of the executive, that is Ministers,
Premiers, MECs etc.
Other legislation which include anti corruption legislation
and the Protected Disclosures Act also recognise the role of
the Public Protector with regard to investigating state
action.
This means you can approach the Public Protector anytime you
have a complaint regarding improper or prejudicial conduct
of an organ of state or public official or public office
bearer.
A lot of improper conduct by the state invariably violates
or undermines human rights. For example, we get complaints
about delayed processing of applications for identity
documents (IDs), passports, birth certificates, social
grants and low cost housing, among other things.
One may ask how these negatively affect one’s human rights.
They do in many ways. For example, your socio-economic
rights are undermined when you cannot get your due pension
payout or benefit from various social grants including old
age, disability and foster care grants, among others. Also,
without your ID, getting employment is a struggle and
getting registered for education is not possible. Your
rights to freedom of movement and citizenship, among others,
will also be severely affected.
Already, most of the 1600 complaints we receive annually
from residents of this province relate to the services I
have just mentioned.
However, regarding housing, I am informed that the
provincial government has, during the 2009/10 financial
year, delivered more than 16 400 low cost houses.
In his recent state of the province address, Premier Cassel
Mathale, reported that the number of houses delivered was in
excess of the set target of 13 978. This is positive but we
will continue to attend to complaints relating to housing
delivery.
As you prepare to lodge a complaint with the Public
Protector, you need to be aware that the Public Protector
cannot help you if you problem involves anything outside of
the public sector or concerns decisions of courts.
This does not mean if you approach the Public Protector with
a matter that is outside our ambit, you will be turned away.
We have a professional staff complement that will refer you
to appropriate redress institutions that will help you
accordingly.
Your complaint or allegation will be investigated with a
view to establishing if the conduct in question was indeed
improper or prejudicial. My office may decide to mediate,
conciliate or negotiate to resolve the complaint.
At all given times, it is important to us that justice is
served. And most importantly, our services come free of
charge!
In the past we focused a lot on the investigative powers.
While continuing to use and even improving the depth of our
investigations, we have consciously decided to harness the
full powers of the Public Protector.
Starting from the fiscal year 2010/11, we will be exhausting
all the powers given to us by law to resolve your complaints
in a manner that ensures justice. These include mediating,
conciliating and negotiating in order to resolve your
complaint.
Another area where we have committed ourselves to improve is
that of turnaround times. Never again shall you wait for a
year to be told what is delaying your pension payout, social
grant or any other service. We will use our power to
subpoena if need be. We have also introduced an early
resolution mechanism to ensure that uncomplicated urgent
matters are resolved within weeks.
We are also planning to deepen the rigour of our
investigations to ensure that improper conduct does not go
unsanctioned simply because we could not dig deeper. To
achieve this we are strengthening our specialisation
arrangements. This includes separating simple and urgent
matters from complex ones.
We are also revisiting our investigation and dispute
resolution methods, incorporating more alternative dispute
resolution means and strengthening our forensic
capabilities.
Our efforts towards improving good governance continue. In
addition to systemic investigations, we will be engaging in
systemic interventions to ensure that government serves all
people with accountability, integrity and responsiveness.
Systemic interventions seek to respond to systemic
malfunctions that breed poor service delivery and improper
or prejudicial conduct.
The Public Protector is also specifically instructed by the
Constitution to be accessible to all persons and
communities. We have always tried to be accessible, through
outreach, expansion of offices to provinces and regions
within provinces and through using accessible language. We
only have one office in this province, which is located in
Polokwane.
However, we will continue to make use of the municipal and
traditional authorities’ facilities, which have been made
available to our outreach facilitators in order to reach
more people. I would like to express my appreciation to
these institutions for their assistance.
We plan to do even more to enhance our accessibility. Our
initiatives include expanded awareness and outreach
activities, which will include a Public Protector Access to
Good Governance and the use of stakeholder avenues to reach
our people.
In conclusion, I would like to urge all of you to tell us
your needs so that we can be of better assistance to you. I
also call on you to spread the word about the existence of
this noble institution so that we help more people who are
in distress as a result of poor delivery and serves and
untoward conduct by the state.
With regard to any complaints or allegations you may have at
this moment, our mobile service is right here at the back of
this hall. Please approach the desks and our investigators
will help your lodge your complaints.
On a day-today basis you may approach the Public Protector
through our toll free line, postal mail and website or visit
one of our offices. Contact details are available on the
information leaflets distributed at the desks I have just
referred to.
Thank you.
Adv TN Madonsela
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