Public Protector Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka has had enough of government officials treating her orders like suggestions. She wants them locked up.
Gcaleka told a religious leaders' winter school at Stellenbosch University on Thursday that she's proposed an amendment to the Public Protector Act. The change would make it a criminal offence of contempt to intentionally ignore her remedial action.
“I've therefore proposed through the amendment of our legislation – the Public Protector Act, and I continue to advocate, that the deliberate non-implementation of the Public Protector’s remedial action should attract a sanction in the form of contempt of the Public Protector,” she said.
When Gcaleka took over as Public Protector in November 2023 — after acting since June 2022 following the suspension of her predecessor Busisiwe Mkhwebane — the implementation rate of her office's remedial actions was a shocking 2%. That means 49 out of every 50 binding directives were being ignored.
“This wasn't ignorance of the law. It was contempt for it. It was the practical expression of an assumption that had taken root in the culture of governance: that the Public Protector’s findings were something to be managed, litigated, and delayed, rather than implemented,” Gcaleka said.
By 2025, her office had pushed the implementation rate up to 54%. She said she was proud of her team for that. But she was quick to add that the other side of that coin is a 46% non-compliance rate.
“In an environment where the rule of law is the foundation of democracy, a 46% non-compliance rate with binding constitutional directives isn't a statistical footnote. It's a democratic emergency,” she said.
Gcaleka argued that her proposal isn't radical. She said the Constitutional Court has already ruled that the Public Protector's remedial action is binding and that failing to implement it is unlawful. The problem, she said, is that there are no consequences.
“To be unlawful without consequence is to invite repetition. To invite repetition without sanction is to breed contempt. And contempt for accountability institutions is contempt for the Constitution itself,” she added.
The Public Protector serves a single, non-renewable seven-year term. Gcaleka said she's spent her first two-and-a-half years rebuilding the office's credibility, independence, and operational effectiveness. She said significant progress has been made.
But she warned that the health of a democracy can't be measured just by whether accountability institutions exist. They must also be genuinely independent, adequately resourced, and politically protected from the people they're supposed to hold to account.
“A watchdog that can be silenced isn't a watchdog at all but a prop,” Gcaleka stated.
She pointed to what scholars call democratic backsliding — the slow erosion of democracy through small steps, not a single coup. She said the capture or neutralisation of oversight institutions is one of the earliest warning signs.
Gcaleka warned that when the Auditor-General's findings are ignored, the Public Protector's remedial action is flouted, the prosecution authority is politically managed, and parliamentary oversight committees become vehicles for political theatre rather than genuine accountability — and these things happen at the same time, persistently — then the democracy is in danger not tomorrow, but today.
“The risk to democracy from this pattern can't be overstated.”
Gcaleka's proposal would need Parliament to amend the Public Protector Act. It isn't clear yet whether the ruling African National Congress or any other party will support the change. But Gcaleka made it clear she'll keep pushing.
The Office of the Public Protector was established by the Constitution to investigate government misconduct. Its remedial actions are meant to be binding, but enforcement has always been a problem. Mkhwebane, Gcaleka's predecessor, was suspended in 2022 after a parliamentary inquiry found she was unfit for office. Her tenure was marked by legal battles and accusations of political bias.
Gcaleka has taken a different approach — quieter, more focused on rebuilding the institution. But she's now making noise about the one thing that could make her office truly effective: teeth.