Mantashe, Duarte to be charged with insulting Public Protector

Mantashe, Duarte to be charged with insulting Public Protector

AfriForum says it will lay criminal charges against ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe and his deputy, Jessie Duarte, today for their ‘attacks’ on the Public Protector.

AfriForum alleges the pair transgressed the Public Protector Act 28 times in comments on Thuli Madonsela at a media conference at Luthuli House this week.
AfriForum also accuses Mantashe and Duarte of infringing the Constitution by meddling with the functioning of the Public Protector. The charges will officially be registered at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria.

Section 9(1)(a) of the Act makes it an offence to insult the Public Protector. Anybody who is convicted of such a crime faces a sentence of 12 months imprisonment or a fine of R40 000. ‘The Public Protector is one of the last lines of defence to protect democracy, the Constitution and ordinary South Africans against a government transgressing its powers,’ deputy AfriForum chief Ernst Roets says in the affidavit.

Roets lists several comments he considered to be ‘insulting’ of the Public Protector, including allegations Madonsela was abusing her office, that she needed to do her work properly, that she was seeking media attention, that her office was leaking information to the media, and the innuendo that she was operating in cahoots with the EFF.

Source

South Africa Today – South Africa News