GAYE DAVIS and MICHELLE PIETERSEN
SHE WOULD use her powers of subpoena only as a last resort and was not looking for a fight with the government over its response to her findings on the SAPS headquarters leases, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela said.
Speaking from Polokwane last night, Madonsela said her office had received a response yesterday from Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, which detailed her department’s plan of action to implement Madonsela’s recommendations for remedial action regarding the controversial leases.
Madonsela was reported yesterday to be weighing up whether or not to subpoena Mahlangu-Nkabinde after Monday’s deadline passed without her response having been received.
Last night she said her comments to a journalist after a meeting between her and members of the SA National Editors’ Forum had been misconstrued.
“The meeting was over, we were approaching the door with several journalists… I was asked what steps do you take, and said that first there is a friendly reminder, then there is a subpoena – but I made it clear this is not something we use lightly… I did not say I was preparing for a fight with the government.”
Madonsela said she wanted to avoid what she called “case hardening”, where tensions spiral and trust is eroded to the point that lawyers are called in.
She said she believed there was confusion over the lines of accountability between her office, the executive and Parliament.
“In a democracy, the person asking you to justify your actions need not be senior to you – they need only to be accorded the power by the constitution to ask those questions.”
Madonsela’s office confirmed that a fax from Mahlangu-Nkabinde was received yesterday at 3.05pm.
Mahlangu-Nkabinde, who was due to have met the National Assembly’s public works oversight committee to discuss the lease saga at her own request yesterday, did not appear.