The Parliament ad hoc committee established to appoint the next public protector has trimmed the list of candidates from 14 to five.
Those who made it through include Western Cape High Court Judge Siraj Desai and his counterpart from the Johannesburg High Court, Sharise Weiner.
Makhosi Khoza. Credit: INLSA
The others are a former investigator in the Public Protector’s Office and a current analyst at the State Security Agency, advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane; former prosecutor Bongani Majola; and Pensions Fund adjudicator advocate Muvhango Lukhaimane.
Some of the candidates eliminated in the race were roasted by MPs over their past and their conduct during the interviews.
Makhosi Khoza, chairperson of the ad hoc committee on the appointment of the public protector, said they wanted to reach consensus on the single name when they reconvene on Wednesday.
This will be the most important meeting of the MPs before tabling their report with the recommended candidate to the National Assembly at the end of the month.
“As this collective we are not going to vote on the next public protector,” Khoza told MPs.
This was in reference to an instance of a stalemate at next week’s meeting.
She did not want MPs to give their support to the successful candidate through a vote, but wanted consensus. Other ANC MPs earlier called for consensus on the shortlisted candidates.
The successful candidate has to receive support from all the parties, said Khoza.
The shortlisting process saw several candidates fall out of the race.
First to go was former Deputy Public Protector Mamiki Goodman.
All the parties in the National Assembly agreed she was not a good choice and would cause disruption in the Office of the Public Protector.
Senior National Prosecuting Authority prosecutor Willie Hofmeyr also dropped out of the race.
During the interview process, he was grilled on his role in the dropping of charges against President Jacob Zuma six days before the 2009 national and provincial elections.
Current Deputy Public Protector Kevin Malunga was also left out of the process.
The ad hoc committee had raised a number of issues with Malunga during his interview last week.
Some of the issues related to security clearance, but the committee said yesterday the information from the State Security Agency would not be used against him.
Reporting by
[Source: IOL]
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