Statement of the Congress of South Students on the unfortunate utterances towards Thuli Madonsela

The Congress of South African Students has noted the utterances of its Secretary General, Comrade Tshiamo Tsotetsi, on Thuli Madonsela. Comrade Tshiamo Tsotetsi spoke on behalf of the organization, representing it and its views. As an organization we welcome the representation from our SG however we do also note with condemnation that one sentence which came out turned to be a personal address to comrade Thuli Madonsela.

Our interest as an organization is to subject the office of the Public Protector and the Nkandla report to an objective scrutiny, as an organization we would like to take this opportunity to retract that particular sentence which has been now displayed like a personal attack to Thuli Madonsela. The organization retracts the particular sentence on the grounds that we want to shift the focus from Thuli Madonsela personally, to the office of the Public Protector and also to the Nkandla report at hand which should be scrutinized by all organizations, formations and general citizens of the country as the report is of South African citizens' interest.

We have agreed on principle that the utterances on the appearance of Thuli Madonsela were misplaced as they found themselves located on the views of the organization about the office of the Public Protector. With that being put aside, the Congress of South African Students maintains all its other views on the report and the working ethics of the Public Protector who has been on the media, in most times unclear as to what her intentions are for appearing there. We have seen the office of the Public Protector appear on our television almost every week as if the office is applying for a spot in the entertainment industry.

Up until today we have not been given a clear reason as to how there were leakages of the report to newspapers before its official release. As a students' organization which organises students behind the banner of the ANC we also cannot turn a blind eye on how the report was released in a short space of time prior the national elections, especially after the many addresses to the media by the office of the Public Protector on the report but without the full report. If we did not know better we would say it was a promotion process. We can speculate that it was a promotion of the report as the Public Protector once said to the media "When the report gets released many will be surprised". All those utterances were unnecessary from the office of the Public Protector.

The Congress of South African Students on the other side welcomes the report because it has been able to clear our President of any speculations of corruption. As an organization we await in anticipation for proper actions to be taken against those who were found guilty by the investigation of the Public Protector as we do not condone corruption of any kind. COSAS is able to stand boldly and say our President is innocent and ready to continue his work as the first representative of the country. We encourage everyone to ensure that their identity documents are ready so that on the 7th of May, we all go out to vote and vote for the ANC.

Statement issued by Collen Malatji, Congress of South African Students President, March 25 2014

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