Home » Madonsela Says Meeting with Zuma over Gupta Allegations was ‘Cordial’

Madonsela Says Meeting with Zuma over Gupta Allegations was ‘Cordial’

PRETORIA – Outgoing Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela has reported that her meeting on Thursday with South African President Jacob Zuma, and his legal team, was “cordial”. The meeting in Pretoria formed part of her investigation into alleged involvement of the Gupta family in such matters as the hiring and firing of Cabinet Ministers, securing of state contracts and other improper and perhaps […]

By SAPeople
06-10-16 22:01
in News

PRETORIA – Outgoing Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela has reported that her meeting on Thursday with South African President Jacob Zuma, and his legal team, was “cordial”.

thuli-at-destiny2
Adv Madonsela is on October’s cover. Source: Twitter/DestinyMag

The meeting in Pretoria formed part of her investigation into alleged involvement of the Gupta family in such matters as the hiring and firing of Cabinet Ministers, securing of state contracts and other improper and perhaps corrupt ‘state capture’ behaviour.

In a media statement afterwards, Adv Madonsela said “the meeting was cordial” but that basically the President’s legal representative had tried to delay the investigation until she has left office.

“For the greater part of the four-hour meeting, the President’s legal representative argued that the investigation be deferred to the incoming Public Protector, who he advised had been announced today, on the grounds that there wasn’t enough time to conclude the matter properly and that there was no reason for the investigation to be prioritised.”

Madonsela said the President and his advisers claimed the “President had not had time to prepare answers with legal advice” BUT did acknowledge that Zuma had in fact been advised – in writing by the Public Protector – about the allegations made against him, including his suspected breach of the Executive Ethics Code, on 22 March 2016.

Madonsela said that finally it was agreed  that the President would be given a set of questions to answer through an affidavit, and to then “meet again with the Public Protector and provide answers on matters needing clarity”.

This evening South Africa’s much loved Public Protector has been inspiring the audience at a Destiny Magazine event. (She is on its October cover.)

She said public power is a “borrowed and entrusted power” and not a space to advance ourselves and our friends; and that “life is such that we’re never able to go through everything on our to-do-list, and it’s OK.”

Madonsela also said that the debate around #FeesMustFall shouldn’t be about whether to give free education… but that we should be discussing “when and how”! She pointed out that 22 years after the country’s democracy, there are tertiary students who sleep in bathrooms and libraries…