Johannesburg - Reported allegations of fraud and corruption
against Public Protector Thuli Madonsela are untrue, she said at a media
briefing in Pretoria on Wednesday.
"The allegations against me are baseless," she
said after The Star reported that sources, which it did not name, said police
planned to "pounce" on her in connection with three-year-old
allegedly illegal activities which took place when she was a commissioner of the
SA Law Reform Commission (SALRC).
Reportedly, the allegations are that while she was a
full-time commissioner at the SALRC, companies wholly owned by her did work for
and were paid R1.8m by the commission, an independent statutory body linked to
the department of justice.
"The allegations against me are baseless, without
truth, and malicious. I have never been accused of fraud or corruption."
She said there was not a document in the department of
justice or the commission in which she is accused of fraud and corruption.
However, she did own a company called Waweth, a policy
research company which she managed between 2003 and 2007. She joined the
commission on May 7 2007.
Her company had three contracts with the commission - one
for R30 000 related to books, another for R7 000 also related to books and a
third related to the design of a cover for a book written with a person in the
department of justice. The latter contract was for R3 000.
There might be another worth R6 000 which an associate did.
She said the commission knew about her work and she had
asked her office to find any other documents relating to audits for her.
"But the question of R1.8m is malicious and completely
baseless. The department of justice was aware of the fact that I owned
Waweth."
She said she asked that her salary at the commission be paid
into the company account for tax purposes.
She believes this "has no impediment", but there
is a dispute over this.
"It is unfortunate that this report seems to be trying
to distract me and my office."
Police said earlier they would not comment on the newspaper
report.
"We are not going to be drawn into comments attributed
to faceless people," said Colonel Vishnu Naidoo.
"We don't confirm or deny investigations against people
unless they have appeared in court."