THE AFRICAN National Congress hit back at South Africa’s top ombudsperson yesterday after she accused the governing party of undermining her office.

The office of ANC chief whip Phumelele Stone Sizani spoke out after public protector Thuli Madonsela attacked MPs for not inviting her to advise a committee set up to consider the police minister’s report into state-funded security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma’s home.

The work carried out at Mr Zuma’s homestead in Nkandla included installing a water tank for firefighting and creating a feature to prevent soil erosion on the hillside. Ms Madonsela claimed in her report that they were a swimming pool and an amphitheatre respectively.

The whip’s office said: “It is such descriptions which made MPs to observe that the descriptions of certain aspects of the upgrades were misrepresented.”

Ms Madonsela used a press conference to claim that criticism of her 2014 “Secure in Comfort” report into the matter and subsequent demand that Mr Zuma pay the costs amounted to “vicious attacks.”

Last week, the ANC chief whip’s office accused private contractors of greatly inflating the price of the work at Nkandla, which soared to over 200 million rand (£10m), in collusion with officials.

It welcomed the Department of Public Works’s progress in prosecuting those responsible.

Ironically, Ms Madonsela also accused the ANC government of punishing her by refusing to grant her department an annual budget increase of 200 million rand on top of its existing allocation of 246m rand (£12.4m).

The whip’s office responded that the allegations were “baseless” and smacked of “political posturing” by the ostensibly impartial public protector.

The South African Communist Party also criticised the public protector, accusing her of having a common agenda with opposition parties.

“She is arrogantly undermining parliament and its processes,” said spokesman Alex Mashilo.

“Her behaviour leaves the impression that there possibly may be ulterior political motives that she is pushing.

“She either does not fully comprehend the law governing the office of the public protector or she has used the Nkandla matter to pursue a partisan agenda against both the democratically ANC-led government and the president.”