Take a bow, Thuli Madonsela
It takes a certain kind of person to stand up for what is right, even
in the face of serious opposition and indications that, for all your efforts,
you might not get the desired results. Even more so when the machinery you go
up against represents the highest echelons of state. For, when the going gets
tough, the tough might just turn around and abandon ship.
Luckily for South Africa, our Public Protector is made of sturdier stuff. We've come to know and expect Thuli Madonsela to not give in to any kind of pressure in her office's pursuit of justice and fairness. So what a moment it was when the highest court in the land informed us that her findings are binding – even when it applies to the country’s first citizen, Jacob Zuma, and the National Assembly.
In 2014 the soft-spoken Madonsela released her Nkandla report entitled Secure in Comfort, in which she urged President Zuma to repay some of the money spent on non-security upgrades to his Nkandla home as he and his family had unduly benefitted.
Months down the line the Constitutional Court not only agreed with our Public Protector, but also made it very clear that her findings are not mere suggestions. That in fact she has binding powers and that her Chapter 9 insitution has teeth. Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng compared Madonsela's office to a crusader in the mould of the Biblical David who went up against the giant Goliath.
In the months and years after the Nkandla bombshell went off, it was difficult to watch and listen to President Zuma clearly make a mockery of anyone and anything raising it as a topic of discussion. Who can forget his antics in Parliament when he rolled his eyes at MPs and mocked them for not even being able to pronounce the word Nkandla – so how dare they even raise this non-issue?
A R246 million non-issue – in a country where we are still struggling to accommodate the scores of children seeking an education at the beginning of every school year. A country where, despite the promise of an education, the #FeesMustFall campaign has seen thousands of students mobilising and marching through the streets demanding that they be allowed to pursue their educational dreams, through what in fact has been promised to them in the Constitution and the Freedom Charter.
In a few months Thuli Madonsela will hang up her proverbial boxing gloves – but she's not at all battered and bruised. She leaves the office of the Public Protector with the knowledge that her service to the people of this country was honourable and just. So go well, Thuli Madonsela, you were indeed a formidable fighter and defender of our freedoms. You did good.
Faith Daniels is the Head of News at East Coast Radio.