SOUTH Africa’s Communists criticised newly installed ombudsman Busisiwe Mkhwebane yesterday for bidding to extend the brief of the Zondo Commission into corporate capture.

Her predecessor as public protector Thuli Madonsela publicly rebuked her successor for trying to dilute emphasis on the powerful Gupta business family.

Ms Mkhwebane had announced her aim of expanding the probe into state capture by big business back to the end of apartheid in 1994.

Ms Madonsela said that changing the agreed terms of reference would derail the investigation.

She pointed out that her Supreme Court-approved report was concentrated on the Guptas and that no-one could alter them.

SACP spokesman Alex Mashilo accused Ms Mkhwebane of “bringing the image of the office into disrepute,” telling Her to “desist from temptations to use the authority of the public protector to propagate populist and factional politics.”