Protector’s Nkandla probe ‘a fast one’

The investigation into the R200 million security upgrade to President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla residence has emerged as one of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s speediest investigations to date.

Madonsela confirmed this while briefing parliament’s justice and constitutional development committee on her annual report this week.

She had been quizzed again about the investigation and the time it had taken.

Earlier this month, Madonsela said she had received the outstanding information needed to wrap up her investigation into the government’s expenditure on Zuma’s private Nkandla home in KwaZulu-Natal.

Cope MP Luzelle Adams asked Madonsela this week when Parliament would get her provisional report.

“Because that has been outstanding, and every time we see you on television, you’re saying ‘soon, soon, soon’,” said Adams.

Madonsela told Adams her Nkandla investigation was “one of the fastest ones”.

“If you look at the original time it was reported and in terms of the actual time that we’ve started investigating, it has moved faster than others.

“Again, people out there complain that we’re moving faster where the media is watching us, or where the politicians are watching us and their own personal cases,” said Madonsela.

She said her team of investigators were always trying to “balance everything to make sure that everything is moving”.

“That means obviously the wider the brief of investigations per investigator, the more difficult it is to move fast,” she said.

The public protector also noted an increase in her workload and cases the institution finalised during the 2012/13 financial year.

She said each investigator was dealing with about 200 cases on average, whereas an ideal situation would be six to nine cases per investigator a year.

Madonsela is investigating allegations of improper conduct in connection with the Nkandla home.

She conducted an inspection at Zuma’s home on August 12.

- The Star