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Public Protector Adv. Thuli Madonsela is humbled by the Archbishop’s Peace and Justice Award she has received from the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.

She received the surprise award at the inaugural Archbishop Thabo Makgoba annual public lecture focusing on value based leadership at the Rhodes university in Grahamstown on Friday.

Speaking at the event, Adv. Madonsela said she was thankful that the contribution of her team towards delivering a constitutional promise of an improved quality of life and freed potential for every person was being recognised.

The church said the award acknowledged the work Adv. Madonsela’s office was doing for the humblest citizens to help them vindicate their constitutional rights and for exacting accountability in state affairs.

In her address Adv. Madonsela said there was a need for decision-makers to fully submit to constitutional supremacy that included scrutiny by structures the Constitution gave powers to hold them accountable regardless of the rank of such structure in the government hierarchy.

She told the packed lecture hall that her office relied on value based leadership to contribute meaningfully to its role of being a buffer between government and the people.

This, said the Public Protector, coupled with good faith, was key to her office and other institutions supporting constitutional democracy that relied on it to ensure restorative justice for the people.

Adv. Madonsela advised of a need for a paradigm shift from the pre-Constitution thinking which is anchored in parliamentary supremacy and the notion that some authorities were above the law.

She warned of a notion where saying nothing in the face of wrongdoing was seen as a way of leadership, saying contrary to the belief, it was a certain form of leadership.

By being silent in the face of wrongdoing, Adv. Madonsela said, one was consenting to such wrongdoing.

The Public Protector said that there was never a time where people were not leading, adding that leading was not only about titles.

She attributed the failure in society and many organisations not to the lack of leadership but to the abundance of bad leadership.

Adv. Madonsela called for the prioritisation of value based leadership at personal level and in state affairs, warning that if this was not done, the National Development Plan, African Union’s Agenda 2063 and other development goals will be pipe-dreams.

Issued by Public Protector South Africa