Madonsela fears for her life

Johannesburg - Public Protector Thuli Madonsela says she is deeply concerned about her safety and intends to approach the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) over the matter, reports the Sunday Independent.

According to the newspaper, Madonsela said in an interview, that her fears increased recently after someone called her an “askari” (political turncoat) on a social media network.

Madonsela said she is being perceived as “somebody who is the enemy of the ruling party”, reports the newspaper.

Currently, she has security detail provided by the SAPS’s VIP Protection Unit.

This comes after a week of high drama for Madonsela who from last Monday had to deal with the issue of the leaked letter that she wrote to President Jacob Zuma regarding his reply to her Nkandla report.

The ANC on Tuesday accused Madonsela of not doing her work correctly. Party secretary general Gwede Mantashe said she was abusing her office and trying to get media attention by saying things not in any report or being investigated anywhere.

This followed Madonsela's claim that the letter she had written to Zuma was leaked by a senior ANC official. She has however, steadfastly refused to name the official who leaked a letter she had written to Zuma.

"I will not name the person," she told reporters in Pretoria.

"If anyone wants to know who it is, they must speak to the two media houses. The person who leaked the letter has to take responsibility."

Despite holding a press conference earlier in the week, insults against her continued to fly and by Thursday, Madonsela said she was not disconcerted by attacks on her by ANC members but she did call on the party’s leaders “to rein in those people that seem not to have respect for fellow human beings", she told reporters in Pretoria.

Madonsela said she had served in the ANC and taken up arms while those insulting her were nowhere to be seen.

"A lot of those insulting me are old enough to have been in the trenches with me but they were not there when it was tough," she said.

Madonsela said she took up the liberation fight to ensure she could one day tell her grandchildren that they had done what they could to better the country.