Honestly now - that Nkandla media leak... Who would you believe?

For more:

• Mail & Guardian: ANC still insists Madonsela leaked Nkandla report... You have to feel for them... Zuma (read ANC) appointed Thuli Madonsela and now the public protector is doing what too many in government clearly do not do... her job.
  

  Thuli Madonsela has singled out the ANC's Gwede Mantashe and Jessie Duarte, and the SACP's Blade Nzimande as being behind a campaign to 'delegitimise' her office. She stopped short of labelling them liars. (Image: GCIS)

  Without fear or favour she has investigated this, that, and the other - which puts a bit of a damper on the festive season when you are caught with your paws in the cookie jar.

  Hence, she's been a right royal pain in a sensitive area for a number of those around Number 1, and they have found themselves in number two... from the odd head of SAPS to Dina "Check my shoes, doll" Pule. Now, if the reports on her provisional Nkandla report are accurate, she has Number 1 in her sights over what appear to be anything but security features (what's everyone so afraid of?) at his Nkandla pad - and for which you and I, taxpayers both, paid. A swimming pool, for instance, and a cattle kraal?

  She insists that the leak of the Nkandla report did not come from her office, and points out that it was sent out to a limited number of ministers and the judge tasked with assessing the report.

  What, she asks, would be the advantage for her in leaking the report to the media? The ANC (Gwede Mantashe etc.) insist the leak is from her office.

  What indeed - so who would you believe?

• SABC: No political undertones in report release: Madonsela... Even the government mouthpiece is carrying a report in which Madonsela defends calls that her office be investigated for alleged leaks.

• Sowetan Live: Nkandla report out in January... Not long to wait, it seems, before the final Nkandla report is out. Madonsela says it is expected to be out in mid-January (and makes the point that she has never said it would be released only in March, as some in government/political party circles have alleged.
  

  A view from space, courtesy NASA, of the Nkandla presidential pad. We have deliberately used this long shot and only approximated the position, to avoid any unwitting revealing of any security features.

  Sowetan Live quotes her as saying: "I never said the report would be released in March next year. I said I was trying to have the report released by the end of the year, but the likelihood is that it will be released in January 2014."

• IOL: Thuli hits back over Nkandla... Madonsela has come out fighting - as one would now expect of her, and according to IOL, she says she is "the victim of a campaign [led by senior leaders of the ANC-led tripartite alliance] to 'delegitimise' her office. According to IOL "she singled out ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, his deputy, Jessie Duarte, and SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande as the ringleaders of a campaign to 'delegitimise' her office. She stopped short of labelling them liars."