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Cape Town - New Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane must be given the benefit of the doubt, EFF leader Julius Malema said on Wednesday.
"I think we should give her a chance. She is inheriting an institution, and even if she made commitments to [President Jacob] Zuma and friends that she will do work for them in the PP office, she is going to be exposed," he said outside Parliament.
"She is going to be the first Public Protector not to finish her term of office if she engages in any shenanigans."
Former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela on Tuesday agreed with her successor's decision not to oppose President Jacob Zuma's application for an interdict against the release of the "state capture" report.
"I'm not surprised. I probably would have made the same decision if I was the new PP," she told News24.
Malema said Mkhwebane had confirmed that the report was final.
Two weeks ago the EFF approached the North Gauteng High Court to force the release of the report by stopping the interdicts by Zuma and Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des Van Rooyen.
Van Rooyen last week withdrew his application.
"We are opposing Zuma," Malema said.
"He says he wants to know if the report of the Public Protector is final. [Mkhwebane] said it is final. The letter to Parliament said the report is final. So why do you need the courts to tell you that?" he asked.
"We think that Zuma is going to pay the legal cost for all of us for having wasted the court's time."
