Thuli warns against hiring weak successor

Thuli-Madonsela-Rhodes
Thuli-Madonsela-Rhodes
Replacing a strong public protector with a weak one who lacked values-based leadership would be like firing your doctor when he diagnosed cancer, public protector Thuli Madonsela has warned.

Madonsela, who on Friday night delivered the Rhodes Business School’s inaugural Archbishop Thabo Makgoba Development Trust lecture to a packed auditorium in Grahamstown, during question time described it as unlikely that the government would seek to gut the public protector’s office by appointing a weak person to replace her in 2016.

She said if government did so it would be the opposite of what she termed an act of “self-love” by government.

She said a public protector or any administrative oversight body had a duty to tell the government hard truths that could assist it to govern in perpetuity.

“For a government to continue governing it must be told what its blind spots are so that it can then fix them before people get angry.”

To appoint someone who would lie was “really like firing your doctor when the doctors says your foot has cancer instead of maybe chopping off your foot and saving it.”

She also dismissed the possibility that the office of the PP would be discarded in the same way as the Scorpions had been when it had become a thorn in the side of government.

But she said discarding the Scorpions had been a mistake and had created a vacuum that had left a backlog of corruption-related cases.

Madonsela’s lecture, which centred around values-based leadership, described the constitution as SA’s greatest heritage and said its values should be upheld and protected by all.

She said values-based leadership involved decision-making informed by values and principles such as honesty, public interest, people first, equality, the rule of law and constitutional supremacy.

“The constitution is our collective lodestar directing us to a South Africa we want, which is one that is inclusive, based on social justice, human dignity and an improved quality of life for all.”

Values-based leadership at all levels was the only way to achieve the constitutional dream. There was, in particular, a need for ethical leadership among public functionaries and politicians entrusted with state power and public resources.

Without it, she said, South Africa would never achieve the goals in the constitution, the National Development Plan, and the sustainable development goals of the United Nations.

“All of these goals will remain a pipe dream.”

She said leaders whose decisions were based on the values of the constitution did not require the police or the courts to tell them right from wrong.

“Values-based leadership is accountable. It is very likely to admit mistakes and make amends.”

Friday marked the 15th anniversary of the Rhodes Business School. At the celebrations, Madonsela was also awarded the Anglican church of South Africa’s Archbishop’s award for peace and justice.

Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba said the award acknowledged people who made outstanding contributions in their communities.

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