Public Protector’s office working to reduce legal challenges, says Gcaleka

CAPE TOWN - Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka says over the past year, the institution has become a far less litigious environment.

Only two of its investigation reports are currently being challenged in the courts. One of these is the Phala Phala investigation, which last year cleared President Cyril Ramaphosa of any wrongdoing in connection with the theft of millions of US dollars from his Limpopo farm.

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QUALITY ASSURANCE

It was the regular legal challenges to investigation reports and the millions of rands in legal fees that contributed to the undoing of former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane. But her successor said measures were in place to reduce the number of legal challenges to her findings and recommendations.

“We credit these positive developments to a number of interventions we have implemented since August 2022, which includes strengthening quality assurance throughout the investigation process. Over the past 14 months, there’s also been steady improvements in state departments implementing remedial action - from only 2% in January 2022, to almost 29% percent as of this week.

“The intention is to enhance this in the near future, owing to our proposed amendments to the Public Protector Act, which among other things, include criminalising the non-implementation of our remedial action.”

Gcaleka said there had also been improved relations with state role players and the responding parties in complaints.