South Africans are wasting time and money going to court over matters that could be settled by approaching her office, says newly appointed Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.
Madonsela wants South Africans to know they don't have to take expensive legal action to resolve problems they encounter in dealing with the government.
In an interview, Madonsela cited two lengthy legal battles that wound their way through the high court all the way to the Constitutional Court.
One involved residents of Phiri, Soweto, who took the City of Johannesburg to court over the installation of pre-paid water meters. The other was Hoerskool Ermelo's legal tussle over language policy.
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Madonsela said these cases should not have ended up in court because they fell within the mandate of the public protector to investigate "improper" conduct by organs of the state.
She said it would be quicker to resolve problems through her office rather than via the courts. People who believed they had been affected by improper conduct by the state - whether national, provincial or local government - could approach her office and, where it had jurisdiction or where internal remedies were available, it would be investigated.
"If you look at the water issue, basically it's a legal question, but also a policy question on what... is conducive in a country where there's a huge gap between rich and poor.
"If people with the prepaid meters had not gone to the Constitutional Court they could have come to the public protector. But sometimes people prejudice themselves by going to court on matters where we would have helped them," said Madonsela, a former commissioner of the SA Law Reform Commission.
The Ermelo school was Afrikaans-medium and had refused to admit 71 pupils in 2007 because they would have had to be taught in English.
The Concourt ruled that prepaid meters were legal, and it ordered the Ermelo school to review its language policy by including English as a medium of instruction.
Madonsela said she was concerned many were unaware her office could take decisions independently of the courts. If these decisions were not "satisfactory", the courts could be approached.
"We look at the law, but we also look at what is fair in a country that says it is looking at equal opportunities and improving the lives of all people.
"It's not a legal question of whether you are entitled to that (service), it's a question of (whether), in a developmental state, is it advisable to do that, so we would resolve the matters differently," she said.
While she has spent only three days in the hot seat, Soweto-born Madonsela wants the public to be more aware about what her office does.
"Some people know (about us), but we still need to do something with the bulk of the ordinary people. Probably a lot of people know there's a public protector. What we need to do is let them know what we do and when they should come to us.
"If it's an issue of behaviour of the state or officials of government and any of that, we can deal with it. They lose nothing, because if our decision is not responsive to them they can still go to court," she said.
She pledged she would be no pushover when it came to guarding her independence.
Her predecessor, Lawrence Mushwana, came under fire for taking decisions seen as friendly to the government.
"I will not be intimidated. I will only make decisions that will allow me to sleep well at night and look my children in the face," said Madonsela, a mother of two who has also served as a chief director in the Justice Department.
- This article was originally published on page 13 of Daily News on October 23, 2009
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