Cape Town - The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) charges against Democratic Alliance MP Glynnis Breytenbach is a “desperate abuse of the criminal justice system” to divert attention from the NPA’s problems, the DA said on Sunday.
The DA had noted the charges that had been “trumped up” against Breytenbach, DA federal executive chairman James Selfe said.
“We further note the statement from the ANC chief whip Stone Sizane’s office. This while unsurprising is a desperate abuse of the criminal justice system to create a diversion from the real issues that have plagued our prosecutorial integrity,” he said.
The ANC in chorus with the NPA was once again using this as a “cheap political gimmick to mask its own record of dealing with its own questionable characters”.
If the ANC was serious about Breytenbach it had to walk the talk and take swift action against those in their own ranks who had their own transgressions being probed by various investigative bodies.
Read: NPA brings charges against DA’s Breytenbach
It was instructive that the charges against Breytenbach had been laid at the same time as the DA’s court action against Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions (DNDPP) Nomgcobo Jiba.
The DA was in the midst of a review application requesting the Western Cape High Court to set aside President Jacob Zuma’s decision not to suspend and order a commission of inquiry into Jiba, despite many calls to do so by the former NDPP Mxolisi Nxasana, Selfe said.
“The charges for which advocate Breytenbach stands accused were thoroughly traversed in [the NPA’s] disciplinary hearings against her and all resulted in her acquittal.
“Now, [three] years after the fact, the NPA wants to revive matters that have already been dealt with. This is on the back of President’s Zuma’s capitulation in the Nkandla Constitutional Court matter on Tuesday this week and the al-Bashir saga before the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on Friday.
“The ANC and the NPA know that the DA has a strong case against Jiba and knowing the judiciary’s commitment to the rule of law will be unfettered by undue political considerations; the NPA is panicking in a thinly veiled move to distract the nation from an NPA boss who is wholly unfit to hold office,” Selfe said.
Read: Credibility of NPA at stake - DA
In a statement issued by his office on Sunday morning, Sizani said Breytenbach had been “under a cloud since her time at the NPA and, as matters stands, she now has a case to answer in court regarding her alleged misconduct while at the NPA”.
“As the authority with autonomous powers to decide whether to prosecute or not on the basis of the strength of evidence before it, it is improbable that the NPA would take such a decision against Breytenbach lightly.
“Therefore the claim by the DA that the charges are politically motivated are just an act of desperation at being cornered into an embarrassing situation by the alleged actions of its senior MP,” he said.
Breytenbach, along with the DA, should welcome the charges as a valuable opportunity to clear her name before a neutral court if she was not guilty as she claimed. Sizani called on the DA to immediately suspend Breytenbach until the conclusion of the court process.
Breytenbach will appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday after the NPA decided to charge her with contravening the NPA Act.
Luvuyo Mfaku said on Saturday the charges related to Breytenbach allegedly refusing to hand in her work-issue laptop and removing evidence from it while she faced an internal investigation for misconduct several years ago.
African News Agency