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Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, has slammed suggestions that her investigations can only culminate in mere recommendations that were not binding.
Speaking at a Heritage Day event in Bizana in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday, Madonsela said such arguments sought to turn an important constitutional avenue for access to justice into what she termed "a gate to nowhere".
Madonsela was the guest speaker at an outreach programme in Kwa Mzizi village near Bizana organised by the South African Women Lawyers Association in the Eastern Cape.
"Those who advocate this view say it is so because the Public Protector is not a judge or court of law. This logic is beyond flawed because we all know that you need not be a judge to have power to make binding decisions," she said.
"The Independent Electoral Commission, which is a fellow Chapter Nine institution, and others such as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and the Competition Commission make binding decisions and they are not courts."
Madonsela added that the Public Protector was one of the greatest innovations of South Africa's Constitution, transforming both access to justice and public accountability frameworks beyond the classical mechanisms such as courts and tribunals.
