Mushwana to chair human rights commission

Former public protector Lawrence Mushwana is the new chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission, the commission’s spokesperson said on Thursday.

“He is the chairman,” said Vincent Moaga of Mushwana, who succeeds Jody Kollapen who left at the end of September.

Mushwana will take office from November 2.

Mushwana hails from Limpopo and, like many of the country’s top legal minds, started off as a court interpreter before becoming a magistrate, according to a biography on the website of his previous employer where he has worked since 2002.

He was detained twice during the apartheid era.

He has chaired budget and code of ethics committees in Parliament, and has been a commissioner on the Judicial Service Commission.

Mushwana is fluent is seven languages and conversant in another three.

Famous cases he dealt with at the protector’s office include Oilgate and a complaint over the way President Jacob Zuma was being treated by the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP).

He told the Mail & Guardian that in the Zuma complaint, where he decided then NDPP Bulelani Ngcuka was treating Zuma unfairly in saying there was a prima facie case against him, but not charging him was one of the most difficult he had to deal with.

“Here I had my own minister who is supposed to protect me coming out in the media attacking me,” he told the publication after then justice minister Penuell Maduna called his report “junk”.—Sapa