Johannesburg - NPA prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach's application to be reinstated to her job was dismissed by the Labour Court in Johannesburg on Friday.
“The application was dismissed,” Breytenbach said after proceedings. She declined to comment further.
Earlier in July, Judge Hilary Rabkin-Naicker heard arguments from lawyers representing the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and Breytenbach.
Andrew Redding SC, for Breytenbach, submitted that her new job was not the same as the one she had before her suspension in April 2012.
“The position to which she has been transferred is in no way the equivalent of the position she used to hold,” he said.
Redding described the NPA's conduct since Breytenbach's suspension as unusual.
“What began as an investigation into her conduct blew up into… a federal case against her,” he told the court.
He contended that the prosecuting authority had done all it could to prevent her returning to her position from the day on which the NPA levelled allegations against her.
Redding submitted the NPA still considered Breytenbach suspended. He said this was based on letters between her lawyer and the NPA after she was cleared, at a disciplinary hearing, of all 15 charges against her on May 27.
The following day, the NPA announced it would bring a court challenge against the ruling because it considered the findings “factually incorrect and legally unsustainable”.
The NPA wanted to place Breytenbach on special leave pending a review of the disciplinary hearing's findings. At a meeting held on Breytenbach's return to work, she was told there were allegations of misconduct against her.
“(The NPA)… is doing all it can do to prevent Ms Breytenbach from getting her hands on the docket of... (former police crime intelligence head Richard) Mdluli,” Redding said.
Breytenbach brought an urgent application to get her job back as regional head of the NPA's specialised commercial crime unit in Pretoria. - Sapa