Advocate Tseliso Thipanyane said he is the best candidate to succeed Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane when her term comes to an end in October.
Speaking during the first day of interviews of eight shortlisted candidates, Thipanyane described himself as possessing the five qualities of leadership – intelligence, humility, trustworthiness, discipline and integrity.
“I think at this point in time, the Public Protector definitely needs to restore dignity of the organisation in order to serve the mandate and the people of this county and, therefore, what one needs is someone with track record of leadership and who meets the five criteria as per Art of War in order to be able to turn things around,” he said.
Thipanyane, who is currently the head of legal service in the Office of Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, previously served as CEO of the Human Rights Commission.
No stranger to Chapter 9 Institutions, Thipanyane said his track record as a human rights commissioner has helped him in his career as a public servant.
“You can’t fly a plane with just by having theoretical knowledge. You have to have track record that you can fly a plane at this point in time.
“You need people with proven track record, proven abilities of leadership to be able to fly this plane.”
Thipanyane said with leadership challenges that have been experienced in the past at Chapter 9 Institutions, the public need a Public Protector who will deliver and be trustworthy.
He said one of the important challenges facing the country was corruption and poor service delivery.
Thipanyane said he has done work in support of whistle-blowers and was part of the team that drafted the amendment bill on whistle-blower protection and support.
“I believe if I become the Public Protector, one of the things is to ensure there is better support and protection for whistle-blowers so we can do better in fighting corruption and maladministration.”
He also said he would ensure that there was good stakeholder relationship with the government, the public, Chapter 9 Institutions and civil society.
Thipanyane said there was a need to address internal challenges within the Office of Public Protector amid staff being demoralised and incidents that made the public lose confidence.
“We have to ensure complaints handling systems are top notch,” he said.
“How we improve is to make sure that we are able to deliver on our mandate,” he said, adding that the office took a long time to complete investigations, and this undermined people’s trust in them.
Thipanyane also said the Office of the Public Protector would have to deal with the many cases it lost in courts.
“They undermine the confidence of the public and public resources,” he added.
Cape Times