Siyabonga Mkhwanazi
THE Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Michael Masutha, has come under fire from opposition parties in Parliament for refusing to give the public protector more money to investigate the Guptas.
Opposition MPs yesterday accused the ANC government of trying to stifle the work of Thuli Madonsela by not increasing her budget.
For years Madonsela has been urging Parliament to increase her funding.
After the DA and a Christian organisation asked her to investigate the Gupta family on allegations of “state capture” she asked for an increase.
The budget for the public protector is R263 million in this financial year.
Masutha told Parliament yesterday during the debate on his budget vote that her budget would be increased by 15 percent next year. This would take her budget to more than R300m.
But the DA and EFF said this was not enough to investigate the Guptas regarding state capture and other cases of corruption in ANC-run municipalities.
Glynnis Breytenbach, of the DA, said the public protector needed an additional R117.8m to fight corruption, including the Guptas.
Mmabatho Mokause, of the EFF, also told the House that Madonsela needed a bigger slice of the cake.
She said this was in line with the order of the Constitutional Court in March for more resources for the office of the public protector.
She said the public protector would not be able to do her work with the current allocation of R263m.