Madonsela's anti-Zuma crusade could backfire on her

Cape Town - Her supporters describe her as brilliant, fearless and presidential material. But critics of Thuli Madonsela, South Africa's popular and controversial public protector say she is reckless and treading on dangerous ground by waging a vicious verbal crusade against President Jacob Zuma, his ruling African National Congress (ANC) and government.

This, critics say,could leave her badly bruised. Insiders in her office say some senior staff members have distanced themselves from her personal crusade against the ruling party and Zuma and don't want to have their hands burnt when it backfires on her.

Since releasing her report about Nkandla scandal, Madonsela has been on a warpath warning ANC leaders to stop interfering with her work. But there are some within her office who believe the soft spoken 51-year-old mother of two has gone too far in her job to clean up government departments of corruption and has overstepped her jurisdiction.

In her report released in March, Madonsela found Zuma had unduly benefited from the R246 million spent on security upgrades at his rural home in Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province. Madonsela recommended that relevant departments including public works and police deal with the matter and take further action.

Media reports this week said Madonsela had approached the government spy branch, the National Intelligence Agency- not the police for protection claiming her life was in danger.

Madonsela should be applauded by all South Africans for her sterling work investigating corrupt state institutions, government ministers, officials and politicians.In other African countries, public protectors do not have the freedom Madonsela enjoys as a state employee.

The public protector is one of the chapter nine institutions named for the constitutional chapter that establishes a number of bodies with the mandate to guard democracy.In most countries its known as the office of the ombudsman or woman. The public protector may investigate on the basis of a complaint any level of government.

But the question here is: Has Madonsela gone too far in her job to investigate corruption in government. Is she abusing her office as the ANC claims or she is simply a brilliant woman doing her job and refuses to be intimidated by powerful men in the government.

Some in the ANC see her as a pain in the ass and a stooge of imperialist forces working with the opposition.

In Africa it is taboo for a public protector who is an employee of the government to investigate state president. The closest the public protector can go in Africa is targeting ministers and top government officials but not the head of state. That is considered suicide in Africa and those who have tried it regret their decisions if they are still alive.

But some in South Africa are of the view that - Madonsela has let success and support from the public go to her head and she now believes she is above the constitution and indispensable.

Since last year, Madonsela has been fighting the same government and ruling party that gave her the job. She holds regular media briefings with Journalists some of whom have hated Zuma from the first day he decided to stand as a presidential candidate.

The Nkandla scandal provided her and his supporters in the opposition the opportunity to challenge the president head on.

In Africa and elsewhere public protectors are part of the state machinery and chosen in most cases from within the governing party.

You become part of the government not against the government.After carrying out your investigations of corruption, you present your report to the president or parliament for decisions.

But Madonsela's actions of late show clearly that she has seized to being a public servant paid by the state to become an opposition activist-working with outsiders to discredit Zuma's government using whatever means necessary.

Unlike public protectors in other countries, Madonsela holds regular media briefings where she lambasts government officials and the President over Nkandla report. Can someone please put this matter to rest- South Africans are now tired of hearing this without any solution to it. She refuses to let Nkandla go to rest.

If Madonsela believes in dialogue as she claims, why is she not sitting down with the President and his inner circle and discuss the Nkandla report, corruption in state institutions and party leaders rather than hold media briefings for anti-Zuma Journalists.

I have to agree with Gwede Mantashe, the ANC secretary-general that the public protector is now abusing her office probably working with outsiders or opposition parties to discredit the government of president Zuma.

The ANC sees her as a nuisance and a stooge of imperialist forces since she was appointed to the position in 2009.

The Nkandla report found that Zuma had benefited improperly from the upgrades and recommended that the president refund some of the costs. But Madonsela also recommended that relevant departments deal with the issue after publishing her own findings.

I am not a Zuma fan but I respect him as the country's president.He should be given the respect he deserves as head of state and not to be disrespected by stooges like Julius Malema who were not even born when Zuma, ANC and PAC leaders left the country to join the struggle for freedom which Malema and his red berreted Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) hooligans now enjoy in parliament.

Where were people like Malema when ANC and PAC leaders were fighting apartheid. He was not born but today he goes around attacking those who brought him freedom calling them names. Enter Thuli Madonsela, she is given this top job by the ANC government and uses her position to discredit the ruling party and its leaders while using her office as cover.

My question is - Is she doing her job which the government hired her to do- as a public servant or she is now doing the work of the opposition parties?They are the ones who should be holding media briefings because they have benefited from the Nkandla scandal not Madonsela - a public servant.

Has she forgotten she is a state employee not an activist for the opposition.Its good to exercise her freedom which is enshrined in the constitution but her actions speak another language. She has given the opposition all the ammunition they need to wage a dirty campaign against the ANC.

Its high time the ANC acted like a ruling party and put Madonsela in her place. The public protector has simple become too big for her boots. The only problem facing the ANC now is that the party itself is struggling to weed out moles from within some of whom hold senior positions.

The party's political and military wings were heavily infiltrated by apartheid agents while still in exile in Zambia.Like their liberation war allies, the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (Zapu), the ANC still does not know how to deal with the moles or who they are.

The Ndebele dominated Zapu party in Zimbabwe discovered late that one of the biggest Rhodesian spies inside the party while still in exile in Zambia was its vice-president Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo. Moyo was killed in a parcel bomb by a former British special forces man Allan 'Taffy' Brice who was working for the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).

He was based at the Zapu headquarters in Zambia. ANC and Zapu formed a military alliance in the late 60s which saw Umkhonto we Sizwe fighters in Zambia fighting alongside Joshua Nkomo's Zipra guerrillas in the Rhodesian bush war.

His death was a mix up between Rhodesia's two security branches-the Special Branch and the CIO. Moyo was said to have been a mole for the Special Branch and the CIO was not aware of his links with the domestic intelligence service.

Moles inside the ANC have been co-ordinating their activities with mainstream media and Journalists known to enjoy bashing Zuma and the ANC. Although the ANC denies its own members have been leaking party secrets to the media and to Madonsela's office, reliable sources agree the party is heavily infiltrated by moles from the apartheid era.