How much Thuli Madonsela bagged after leaving office

With Busisiwe Mkhwebane becoming the first head of a Chapter Nine institution to be impeached, there is some level of renewed interest in the Public Protector’s office, including her predecessor, Thuli Madonsela.

The removal from office means Mkhwebane will forfeit the R10 million gratuity that would have been due to her had she completed her tenure without interference. A total of 318 MPs voted in favour of a motion to impeach Mkhwebane after Parliament’s Section 194 Committee, which had been tasked with probing her fitness for office, found her guilty of gross misconduct and incompetence.

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INSIDE THULI MADONSELA’S ‘GOLDEN HANDSHAKE’

Interestingly, Busisiwe Mkhwebane would have left office with a significantly bigger ‘golden handshake’ than Thuli Madonsela – try about R2.5 million more. According to Mail & Guardian, Madonsela received R7.6 million when she concluded her tenure in October 2016 – but not without drama.

Madonsela was soon at loggerheads with Mkhwebane over the damage of a car she had used during her tenure. In 2012, Madonsela’s son crashed her state-issued BMW X6 in Pretoria. The costs to fix the vehicle were a whopping R470 000 – which Mkhwebane insisted be taken from her payout.

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But in February 2017, Madonsela conceded that paying for the car was the right thing to do, saying in part: “Kindly receive my offer to pay for the cost of the repairs for the state car that was damaged in an accident while being driven, without my authorisation, by my son, who was about 22 years old at the time. The offer effectively authorises the public protector of South Africa ex post facto to keep the amount arbitrarily deducted from my gratuity on 15 October 2016.”

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