Zuma, ANC lash out at Public Protector

President Jacob Zuma has accused Public Protector Thuli Madonsela of disrespecting his Police Minister and undermining Parliament – and the ANC has labelled her a proxy for opposition parties and unnamed foreign forces ‘working to discredit’ Zuma. Madonsela, however, has hit back. According to the Sunday Times, she claimed Zuma used a non-existent paragraph from her report on Nkandla when he asked Police Minister Nathi Nhleko to determine whether he was liable to repay some of the R246m spent on the homestead. The newspaper says the spat between the two emerged in a letter Zuma wrote to Madonsela two weeks ago. In it, Zuma sternly rebukes her, saying: ‘I find the criticism and innuendo that because the Minister of Police is a member of the Cabinet and consequently incapable of discharging a function foreshadowed by you and largely adopted by Parliament, unfair and unwarranted.’ He accuses her of interfering with the work of Parliament, suggesting that she allow ‘Parliament to do its work as determined by its processes and the Constitution’.