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.