Parliament has yet to make a recommendation to President Cyril Ramaphosa to fill the position of deputy protector.

This has been more than three years since Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka began acting as public protector in June 2022 and was appointed to head Public Protector South Africa in November 2023.

This has been blamed on parties within the Justice and Constitutional Development Portfolio Committee failing to reach an agreement on who to recommend to the National Assembly after interviewing candidates.

The committee was asked by National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza in August 2024 to restart the process of filling the vacancy of deputy public protector. 

This followed a botched initial process in the sixth Parliament when it was found that former public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane failed to disclose her relationship with two candidates and did not recuse herself from their interviews.

A recent meeting of the National Programme Committee heard that following the interviews conducted last November 2024, the committee has not adopted its report to recommend a candidate who will deputise Gcaleka.

This was despite meetings held to deliberate on the preferred candidate in April, May, and June this year.

A similar situation is playing out in connection with the filling of a position for a commissioner for the South African Human Rights Commission.

Shortlisted candidates for the full position of the commissioner were interviewed in November 2024, but the committee’s meeting did not decide on a candidate to be recommended in April, May, and June.

ANC MP Cameron Dugmore said part of Parliament’s strategic plan was for the institution in this administration to ensure that Chapter 9 Institutions were led.

“I am not sure what the issue is, if there is anything to be done around those two appointments,” Dugmore said.

EFF MP Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi noted that the report on the pending appointments indicated that a directive was awaited from the presiding officers and that there was a report.

“Why is it waiting for a directive from presiding officers if a report is ready?” asked Mkhaliphi.

House Chairperson Cedric Frolick said they have formally written to the committee asking for an interim report to be provided to the Office of Didiza and the House.

“Information at my disposal is that there seems to be no political agreement among the parties in that committee. When committee meetings are called to discuss the matter, the quorum collapses because they don’t want to come to a decision.”

He said it was unacceptable what was happening in the Justice and Constitutional Development Committee.

“We need a report that must come to the House and the House must give a direction on how we must proceed,” he said, adding that the Public Protector South Africa and the Human Rights Commission were critical bodies.

“We must ensure those vacancies are timeously filled. I agree with the members that it is simply taking too long,” Frolick said.

He added that a similar situation was playing out in the Small Business Development Portfolio Committee.

“Parties initially agreed on proposed candidates and have now changed their minds. There seems to be political brinkmanship where the committee can’t come to a decision.”

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za

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