Parliament’s Justice and Correctional Services Portfolio Committee will on Thursday shortlist eight candidates to be interviewed for the position of Deputy Public Protector.
A total of 29 applications and nominations were received but three applicants withdrew.
On Wednesday, the committee met to deliberate on the criteria that will be used to shortlist the candidates.
A decision was also taken that the shortlisted candidates will be interviewed over two days instead of one day.
The African National Congress’ (ANC) Wilma Niewoudt-Druchen was one of the committee members who had concerns over holding interviews for all candidates in one day.
”I don’t want it to become personal but it’s hard for me. I don’t listen with my ears, I listen with my eyes, so I cannot rest. So if it’s a 24 hour interview, I will not be able close my eyes, I will get tired and so will the sign language interpreters. They’ll become mentally and physical exhausted if they have to go for a 24 hour period. Secondly if it’s a two day interview, can we categorise the questions? For example, categorise them into themes. So, if you are talking about team work for example, you don’t ask the same question. It’s still linked to team work but it’s not verbatim, the same question to each candidate,” says Niewoudt-Druchen.
