Public Protector interviews: MPs grill Madonsela’s former deputy

Cape Town – Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s former deputy and adversary Mamiki Goodman (nee Shai) was taken to task by MPs on Thursday over her very public clashes with her former bosses.
Goodman, who served a seven year stint as deputy public protector and who famously hurled accusations at Madonsela in Parliament in 2012 of bullying and of being politically biased, was forced to admit that she was currently suspended from the National Gambling Board, despite not having declared this fact in a questionnaire sent to all candidates shortlisted for the position of public protector.

Candidates vying to replace Public Protector Thuli Madonsela are being interviewed by panel of MPs. File picture: Masi Losi. Credit: INDEPENDENT MEDIA

“You are now suspended because you have accused somebody…you have a history of confrontation with your superiors,” Democratic Alliance MP Glynnis Breytenbach charged, asking Shai whether she was not responsible for causing “mayhem” in the public protector’s office, given that she had also accused Lawrence Mushwana, Madonsela’s predecessor, of sexual harassment — all allegations that have never been proven during various inquiries.
Goodman denied causing mayhem, blaming the media of casting her in a bad light.
“There is a good thing you will find in me if you let yourself understand me for who I am, not how the media has described me…,” she said.
“I’m afraid that conflict is necessary…In everywhere I’m accused, is where I’m trying to rectify the wrong. It is unfortunate that people view the people that are raising the wrongs as the people who are wrong