In modern democratic constitutional States, in order to ensure governmental accountability, it has become necessary for the guards to require a guard. And in terms of our constitutional scheme, it is the Public Protector who guards the guards. That fundamental tenet lies at the heart of this appeal, in which we consider the Public Protector’s powers and examine the constitutional and legislative architecture to determine how State institutions and officials are required to deal with remedial action taken by the Public Protector.
SABC v DA (393/2015) [2015] ZASCA 156 (8 October 2015) per Navsa & Ponnan JJA (Mpati P, Swain and Dambuza JJA concurring) at para [3].