Thuli Madonsela (Lerato Maduna, Netwerk24)
Cape Town – The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) has offered to organise a farewell party for Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.
Calling her a “clumsy clown” who flirted with the “Red Overalls” (a reference to the EFF) and acted like a political celebrity, youth league spokesperson Mlondi Mkhize said Madonsela would not be missed.
“We cannot wait for you to complete your term, but we will bear with you, just a bit longer. We are certain that we will not have to deal with you ever again. In fact, we will not see your face, nor hear your voice ever again.
“We would like to volunteer our services in organising your farewell party, just to say, ‘Goodbye, it was not fun whilst you were with us’.”
Madonsela took to Twitter to question the motive behind the statement.
“I wasn’t even aware I was the subject of such vitriol? Still baffled,” she tweeted, wanting to know if there was a way to deal with the matter in a grown-up manner.
This follows widespread calls by South Africans for President Jacob Zuma to be recalled from his position.
One petition, which has over 60 000 votes online, was addressed to Madonsela, although no petition was started by her.
This didn’t stop the ANCYL calling on her to “desist from her actions and words of undermining the president of the ANC and the Head of State”.
“After all, she is known for forever flirting with the ‘Red Overalls’. In fact, we cannot wait to see her in them herself.
“We understand that Thuli is supposed to be serving the nation through one of its Chapter 9 institutions, which is the Public Protector’s Office. In full view of that, we do not believe that she is empowered to make such endeavors of canvassing a request to Parliament that the President must resign or that she will join a mass demonstration to the Union Buildings demanding that the President Zuma must resign.”
They called on Madonsela to “stop being a political celebrity”.
“We politely request this agent to leave political matters to activists and politicians. We further request her not to attack our government using the highly-respected Office that she was correctly appointed to by President Zuma.
“Just to let you know, the lack of confidence and clear leadership that you hallucinate to be absent from President Zuma is in fact absent in you. Alas, our people are without a Public Protector, but they have you as clumsy clown, pseudo-politician, celebrity-wanna-be, who is abusing her highly-respected Office and her status in society.”
Madonsela’s spokesperson had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publishing.
