Address by Public Protector Adv Thuli
Madonsela on the occasion of an outreach clinic at Glenmore
Community Hall in Carolina, Mpumalanga
31 March 2010
Programme Director,
Councillors
Community Leaders,
Members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen:
Let me start by expressing my gratitude to you for coming to
our meeting this morning and also extend warm greetings from
myself and the Public Protector team at large.
Our meeting today marks the end of a journey that began
early last month in Gauteng. Some of you may be aware that I
have been travelling to provinces across the country,
consulting stakeholders and interfacing with communities
like yourself.
During my meetings with stakeholders, I sought to
introduce myself; find out what expectations stakeholders
had regarding the services of 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 also asked stakeholders to
comment on a draft vision of what we seek to achieve as the
Public Protector over the next ten years.
I held such a meeting with stakeholders from this
province yesterday. Among those who attended were MEC for
Public Works, Clifford Mkasi, who represented Premier David
Mabuza, and representatives from other state organs.
Our meeting this morning will be different in that the focal
point will be the services of the Public Protector to you as
a member of the public.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Before going any further, I will quickly outline what the
Public Protector is and does so as to set the tone for our
discussions this morning and also so that we can all know we
are talking about.
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. 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. The
Constitution declare that 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 includes 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.
My office in this province receive a lot of complaints
regarding delayed processing of applications for identity
documents, birth certificates, social grants such as old
age, foster care and disability grants, and low cost
housing. Recently we received complaints on alleged
maladministration and corruption.
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. More importantly, our services come free of charge!
We know that in certain parts of this province, people
have previously resorted to violent ways of showing
government their dissatisfaction regarding service delivery.
I therefore would like to urge people to refrain from
such actions because infrastructure often gets destroyed in
the process. Our doors are always open, come in and report
it. We will get all the relevant authorities together and
see to it that those problems are attended to.
I am glad that during the meeting I had yesterday with
stakeholders, representatives from government made
commitments to assist and support the Public Protector in
the execution of its mandate. We hope that this will help us
help you much quicker.
Coming to our operational matters, we used to focus a lot
on the investigative powers in the past. 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, ID 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. In
this province we have a provincial office in Nelspruit and a
regional office in Siyabuswa. Obviously, these are not
enough to cover this vast province. However, we do reach out
to those far-flung areas through our outreach activities
such as this meeting.
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 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 you 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.
PUBLIC PROTECTOR OF SOUTH AFRICA
ADV TN MADONSELA
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