Acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka’s endorsement in the National Assembly means her name is now forwarded to President Cyril Ramaphosa for formal appointment as the next Public Protector. (Photo: Facebook / Public Protector South Africa) 
EFF MP Omphile Maotwe was quickly ruled “completely” out of order at Tuesday’s meeting, but she raised the point again later in her exchange with the committee chairperson, ANC MP Cyril Xaba.
“Can the acting Public Protector step aside out of this process so we deal with candidates that are credible, that don’t have any cloud hanging [over them],” Maotwe said.
Xaba’s intervention to put a stop to Maotwe’s commentary was supported by fellow ANC MPs Mina Lesoma and Qubudile Dyantyi, who spoke of the need to raise concerns at the right time in the right place. And that would be in the interviews with individual shortlisted candidates over two days from Wednesday, and again in the committee’s subsequent deliberations to determine who the National Assembly recommends to the President for appointment as Public Protector.
“We will test the suitability over the next two days,” Xaba concluded.
But the EFF-ANC exchange on Tuesday indicated underlying preferences, while the DA has remained silent on naming candidates for shortlisting.
The current deputy Public Protector is understood to be the ANC’s choice, while the EFF nominated only Pension Funds Adjudicator Muvhango Lukhaimane for the shortlist of eight candidates.
Last time round, in 2016, the EFF brokered Busisiwe Mkhwebane, the now suspended Public Protector, for nomination in the House after the DA, supported by other opposition parties, and the ANC locked horns over the governing party’s preferred choice, Judge Siraj Desai.
Read more in Daily Maverick: And then there was one: The woman likely to be the next Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane
The EFF has remained supportive of Mkhwebane over the impeachment inquiry that in the dying days of her non-renewable seven-year term has upheld four counts of misconduct and incompetence against her.
Like Mkhwebane, who was a State Security Agency (SSA) analyst before her October 2016 appointment as Public Protector, Lukhaimane is also linked to State Security.
From May 2007 to June 2011, when she was a research and then an HR general manager, she lists as her workplace Musanda, the State Security and SSA HQ; from June 2011 she chaired for a year the statutory Intelligence Services Council that provides recommendations on spooks’ conditions of service, human resource policies, salaries and fringe benefits.
The EFF’s backing of Lukhaimane carries political irony — she was appointed to her current position in June 2012 by the then finance minister Pravin Gordhan, the ANC minister the EFF has consistently targeted, including a campaign to refer to him by his middle name, Jamnadas, and physically intimidating him at his July 2019 Budget Vote speech.
Two other candidates, advocates Oliver Josie and Tommy Ntsewa, have served in the police. Other shortlisted candidates are magistrate Johannah Ledwaba, advocate Lynnette Marais, who was unsuccessful in the 2016 interviews, law professor Boitumelo Mmusinyane, and Tseliso Thipanyane, a former SA Human Rights Commission CEO and research head, now responsible for coordination in the Office of the Chief Justice.
On Tuesday, the DA and other opposition parties stayed out of the ANC-EFF exchange.
The committee with the long name, the Ad Hoc Committee to Nominate a Person for Appointment as Public Protector, agreed to dismiss objections to the shortlisting process by a nominated lawyer who didn’t make the shortlist of eight, Macbeth Ncongwane. He wrote to MPs that the process “was not transparent, amounted to ticking boxes and had not provided nominated persons an opportunity to address parliamentarians”.
All eight shortlisted candidates passed SSA security vetting and police Crime Intelligence criminal record checks, while all their qualifications, typically LLM and LLB degrees, checked out.
The SSA said, “no security concerns came to light during the screening process” nor any cases of defaults or dual citizenship, while the SAPS Crime Intelligence summary report said, “No illicit activities were identified on the criminal record system…”
From Wednesday, the ad hoc committee will interview candidates for 90 minutes each, with Gcaleka scheduled to be heard last.
The National Assembly has set a deadline of 31 August for the ad hoc committee to present its report to the House. At least 60% of MPs must support the proposed Public Protector candidate, according to section 193(5)(b)(i) of the Constitution, for the name to be forwarded to the President for ratification. DM