IFP MP Mario Oriani-Ambrosini MP today challenged the Public Protector to
appear before the Portfolio Committee on Justice to give information about
any single major scandal which has been exposed through investigation by the
Public Protector or any single culprit which has been hanged high to dry
because of the actions of the Public Protector.

In spite of intense grilling by Oriani-Ambrosini, the Public Protector could
not mention a single example.

Oriani-Ambrosini pointed out that while the country is ridden with
administrative inefficiency and corruption, the work of exposing corruption
is being performed by newspapers and opposition parties with the Public
Protector nowhere to be seen, heard or felt in these public debates.

Even in the few issues into which the Public Protector managed to get its
teeth, its bite left neither impression nor pain.

Oriani-Ambrosini pointed to the case of Hitachi Africa in which the Public
Protector reached the conclusion that the tender was awarded to a partially
ANC-owned company and in spite of an undisclosed conflict of interest the
Public Protector fell short of calling for this contract to be declared
invalid and set aside, as customarily happens in the case of a conflict of
interest.

Oriani-Ambrosini also pointed to Parliament's investigations on Eskom's coal
supply contracts, in which higher prices seem to have been paid to contracts
with political or BEE affiliations, and other matters which are being
investigated by Parliament, exposed by the press and ignored by the Public
Protector.

Oriani-Ambrosini pointed to how a newspaper like the Mail and Guardian has
done much more to expose corruption and protect democracy than the Public
Protector has, in spite of the Mail and Guardian having a turn-around which
is a fraction of the R123 million the Public Protector is asking Parliament
to approve.

Provocatively Oriani-Ambrosini proposed that the Committee should cut the
Public Protector's money in half, waiting for next year to see whether the
office of the Public Protector manages to achieve some tangible results in
the fight against corruption, at which time its budget should be fully
restored.

Oriani-Ambrosini said, "Adopt the approach of hanging one to educate a
multitude, and start from the top. This should be a much more effective
approach than what we spend on advertising your existence to the general
public who knows nothing about you, because there is little to know about
you."

He continued: "For instance go after the Minister of Communication's
expenses in Cape Town's five star hotels when his taxpayers' paid mansion is
fully staffed, furnished and equipped. If you hang somebody like him for
public contempt, the people will know and the message will get out, because
the fish rots from its head and we need exemplary actions to counter the
widespread culture that one can do as one wishes and get away with it."

Thus far, the Public Protector has a lousy track record in effectively
countering this culture.