The ignoble end to Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane's stint -- her unprecedented impeachment inquiry has upheld four misconduct and incompetence counts -- coincides with the search for a new boss of this constitutionally established office.

Eight candidates. Two days of interviews. One nomination by 31 August.

Among the candidates are acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka, appointed in February 2020 as deputy to now suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, and two return candidates from the 2016 selection process: advocate Lynn Marais and Pension Funds Adjudicator Muvhango Lukhaimane.

The other candidates are magistrate Johanna Ledwaba, law professor Boitumelo Mmusinyane, advocates Oliver Josie and Tommy Ntsewa, and Tseliso Thipanyane, a former SA Human Rights Commission CEO and research head, now responsible for coordination in the Office of the Chief Justice.

Two of the shortlisted candidates were once in the SAPS -- Ntsewa and Josie, who also served in the Scorpions -- while another is linked to intelligence services. For a year from June 2011, Lukhaimane was chairperson of the Intelligence Services Council which makes recommendations on spooks' conditions of service and human resource policies and, annually, on improved salaries and fringe benefits; from May 2007 to mid-2011 she was general manager of research and then human resources, and her CV lists her workplace as the State Security HQ, Musanda.

Government service was listed by others, including Gcaleka, who for 11 months from April 2017 advised then finance minister...