Chairperson of the National Press Club, Yusuf Abramjee
Vice Chairperson, Jos Charle
Other members of the Executive Committee of the club
Members of the club
Colleagues from the Office of the Public Protector
Distinguished guests
I am deeply honoured by the invitation to join you today. The timing of the engagement could not have been better. I’ve only been in office as the Public Protector since 15 October this year. I see this first contact as not only critical for introducing myself but also as an opportunity for us to set ground rules for our engagement and cooperation as critical watchdogs in our young democracy.
As you know, the Public Protector was established under the Constitution as one of the institutions supporting democracy. We refer to these institutions as chapter nine institutions. For us to add full value as envisaged in the Constitution, a partnership with the media is indispensable.
The media plays an important role in ensuring state accountability and good governance. These are central matters in the mandate of the Public Protector. In many instances, the Public Protector depends on the media to identify matters for possible investigation with regard to improper conduct by state officials and officers. The media also plays a critical role in conveying outcomes of investigations and informing the public about the role of the Public Protector.
I accordingly hope that this interaction is the first of many we will have in the next seven years. My request for assistance is that you help people understand that I am not the Public Prosecutor. I was recently amused to learn that grade 12 learners at my daughter’s school thought I had been appointed to head a private security company.
Chairperson; constitutionally empowered to investigate any conduct in state affairs or the public administration as a whole, where there is suspicion or allegations of impropriety or prejudice, the Public Protector plays a critical role of keeping government in check. The only matters excluded from the Public Protector’s scrutiny are court decisions and matters outside the public sector. Nevertheless, our mandate is broad and includes all levels of government and parastatals.
With regard to outcomes, we have a fairly broad scope, which includes investigation and reporting any legitimate complaint of impropriety on the part of state actors. Matters range from simple matters such as pensions, grants, Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses and IDS to allegations of tender irregularities.
Our reports are tabled before Parliament to ensure that recommendations are implemented. Competent solutions include mediation, conciliation and negotiation. In fact the use of mediation, conciliation and negotiation powers of the Public Protector’s mandate is one of the issues that I would like to develop further during my term.
As you know the Constitution dictates that the Public Protector must be impartial and exercise his or her powers and perform his or her functions without fear, favour or prejudice. In a nutshell, the Public Protector is independent of government, political parties and any other grouping. I am quite sure that you will continue to play a role to ensure that I adhere to this requirement.
Members of the media, in the few days I’ve been in office I’ve identified a few key challenges and priorities. These include accessibility of the Public Protector, improvement of turnaround time, balancing attention to high profile cases and bread and butter matters, moving beyond systemic investigations to incorporate systemic interventions. Accessibility to all our people, including rural communities is a key challenge and a priority if I am to make a difference.
I’ve noted the efforts of my predecessors to make the office of the Public Protector accessible to communities in order to live up to the constitutional imperative of being accessible to all persons in the country. But I believe there is still a lot to be done and that the media can play a critical role in helping us reach everyone. It’s not just a matter of knowing that the Public Protector exists but its also knowing what matters can be brought to this institution and what recourse or outcomes can be expected.
Accessibility efforts to date have included the establishment of nine provincial and seven regional offices. Regional offices can be found in the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Gauteng, North West and Mpumalanga. Plans are afoot to open another office in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal in the near future. Over and above these, there are mobile offices in Limpopo, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal that help us reach far-flung areas in these provinces. Through our outreach unit we also hold clinics and workshops monthly in different areas of our provinces to spread the word about our existence and the services we offer. Staff also takes new complaints during such activities.
Another critical challenge I’ve identified is the turnaround time for investigations. This is particularly the issue on small cases such as pensions, child grants, identity documents applications and billing queries at local government. I have noticed that some of the matters take more time than it is necessary and this impact negatively on the turnaround time. We need to really improve on that as a matter of urgency. In this regard we need cooperation from government departments, provinces, local government and parastals.
It should not take six months or more just to find out what is holding up a grant application, a pension application, an identity document application, an appeal application or an RDP house application. Even to explain an adverse decision should not take a long time. The only matters that should take a bit longer are those where we request or direct that a decision be reconsidered.
We also need the media’s cooperation in striking a balance between high profile cases and those involving ordinary people. While the media often focuses its attention on matters involving high profile individuals, we believe a case of somebody in dire need of a house, identity document or grant is just as big. If the media highlights cases and our successes on these seemingly small matters, more people will see the value of approaching us.
Cooperation with our stakeholders is one other area that we need to draw our attention to. We are of the opinion that if we have good cooperation with stakeholders, it would be easy to resolve some cases quickly. This will also see the number of recurring cases such as those relating to appeals, pensions, grants, birth certificates and identity documents dropping. We need to reach out to departments as well so that we can agree on protocol to be observed in the service delivery value chain.
Part of our new plans and priorities include systemic interventions. This is in addition to and an improvement on what we currently refer to as systemic investigations. The purpose of systemic interventions is to work with institutions that have recurring problems to collectively identify the systemic causal factors and oversee the implementation of solutions. The envisage solutions include systems alignment with compliance requirements and capacity building.
We have also identified the need to improve our forensic capabilities. In this exercise, we plan to involve and partner with such institutions as the National Prosecuting Authority and the office of the Auditor General.
Chairperson, the issues stated above are some of those that my office will be focusing on in the next few months until we have reviewed our. Related immediate plans include the following:
- We plan to hold bilateral meetings with identified government departments and entities such as the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), Government Employees Pension Fund, Home Affairs, Justice and Constitutional Development, Human Settlements, Finance, Labour and selected municipalities. We receive a lot of similar complaints about these institutions and we see the need to sit around the table with top decision makers in these institutions to find solutions. This will particularly save our investigators from spending a lot time chasing state officials for answers on delays and reasons for various administrative actions. We’ll also use this opportunity to draw attention to compliance requirements under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA) and relevant sector laws that are regularly violated by administrators.
- The Intake and Early Resolution unit I’ve inherited as an infant will be given priority as it has enormous potential for reducing the turnaround time of complaints such as the pension payouts, IDs and social grants.
- I was interviewed on Ukhozi FM two weeks ago and I clearly established that our mandate is not understood by many people. Many listeners who called in complained about police conduct. The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) is an institution that investigates complaints of brutality, criminality and misconduct against members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Municipal Police Service. We are already engaging with the ICD to ensure that they are the first port of call on these matters.
- We have also identified the need to make our investigation processes more transparent. This will be the case mainly on systemic investigations, where we mostly investigate recurring matters. One other way to maintain transparency will be to hold public hearings during investigations and interventions.
- We are also going to encourage people to lodge complaints regarding suspected corruption such as tender irregularities among others. People need to understand that we don’t only help them to get grants and pensions. We also wield the power to investigate maladministration in state affairs and fully probe such allegations.
- We need to intensify our communication to the people so that they know exactly what is needed from them and help us assist them. For example, most letters of complaints lack important details such as contact numbers and are often not clear. The time it takes an investigator to write back to the complainant and wait for a clarifying response instead of just picking up the phone to get more details impedes on our pursuit to resolve cases quicker. We further need improve on our way of reporting. Our reports lack important details such as information received from both the complainants and the defence.
- Improving our outreach and interaction with stakeholders. We are particularly concerned that our existence should be known to and benefit all our people, including those in rural and other historically neglected areas. We also plan to reach out to the media, political parties, civil society and others to get a sense of their expectations and agree on terms of engagement as we all play our different and complementary roles to promote good governance and the rule of law.
Chairperson, there many other challenges but we have identified these for our immediate attention. We hope that we will make head way in this mission to improve on the impact the Public Protector’s contributing to the rule of law and good governance. The key principles that will guide our work in the next few years are: accountability, integrity and responsiveness. I count on you to help me make the difference I need to make. Let us all play our roles in serving our people and enriching brand South Africa.
I thank you.
Source: Public Protector South Africa
