PROSECUTIONS boss Shaun Abrahams is set to become the latest casualty of political machinations at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
This follows his spectacular failure to charge Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and senior SA Revenue Service (Sars) officials with fraud.
President Jacob Zuma has warned Abrahams, North Gauteng director of public prosecutions Sibongile Mzinyathi and acting special director of public prosecutions Torie Pretorius of their possible suspension – pending an inquiry into their fitness to hold office – and asked for written reasons why this should not happen.
Should the three be suspended, they would follow Abrahams’s deputy, Nomgcobo Jiba, and specialised commercial crimes unit head Lawrence Mrwebi, who were placed on special leave pending an inquiry, after being struck from the roll of advocates for bungled attempts to protect crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli from prosecution.
Abrahams was appointed by Zuma after the departure of Mxolisi Nxasana, who was paid out more than R17 million in the wake of an attempt by Zuma to suspend him and institute an inquiry.
Nxasana has since expressed an interest in returning to the post and his removal is being challenged in court.
Zuma’s warning notice to Abrahams, Mzinyathi and Pretorius was prompted by an urgent application from the Helen Suzman Foundation and Freedom Under Law to force him to suspend them pending an inquiry in light of the “baseless charges” against Gordhan and the Sars officials.
Zuma’s appointments of prosecutions heads has been mired in controversy from the start of his presidency when his first pick, Menzi Simelane, was successfully overturned in court by the DA.
Before he became president, Zuma himself had claimed the corruption charges against him were politically motivated.
Now even the ANC’s alliance partner, the SACP, has called for an amendment to the NPA Act to give Parliament a role in the appointment of the head of the NPA to avoid perceptions of partisanship.
Abrahams was called to Parliament to explain himself earlier this month after dropping charges against Gordhan, former Sars commissioner Oupa Magashula and former deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay relating to the latter's early retirement.
Abrahams claimed there had been a prima facie case against the three at the time the decision was taken to charge them, but he was then convinced by representations from Magashula and Pillay, as well as Freedom Under Law and the Helen Suzman Foundation, to drop the charges.
These representations included a legal opinion advising Magashula, at the time he authorised Pillay’s early retirement, that it was in order for Sars to pay the early retirement penalty on his behalf.
This left the allegations by the NPA that the three had deliberately deceived Sars on shaky ground.
But legal experts had already questioned the motive for the case.
The decision to charge Gordhan forced factional tensions in the ANC and the cabinet into the open, with senior ANC leaders, including Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu, coming out in his support, along with Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
Gordhan had been subjected to relentless speculation over his possible arrest as the Hawks investigated an alleged rogue intelligence unit at Sars.