Pretoria - Former prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach’s defence team on Thursday said the case against their client was a smokescreen to force her out of the NPA.
Breytenbach and her former lawyer Gerhard Wagenaar are on trial in the Pretoria North Magistrate's Court on four charges of contravening the NPA Act and two of defeating the ends of justice. Breytenbach faces two additional charges of fraud and perjury.
Her defence advocate, Barry Roux, was critical of NPA Integrity Management Unit acting senior manager Hercules Wasserman.
Roux accused him of not allowing Breytenbach to gain access to information pertaining to the allegations made against her. He said the entire case against his client was a smokescreen in a bid to get rid of her.
Roux created a chronology of events dating back to November 2011 when Breytenbach was on the verge of prosecuting former police crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli for fraud and corruption. Roux attempted to show the court that Breytenbach was stopped from prosecuting Mdluli and later suspended.
When disgraced advocate Nomcobo Jiba was appointed as the acting prosecutions boss, she appointed head of the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit Lawrence Mrwebi to review the complaint related to mining rights against Breytenbach.
Roux told the court the mining rights complaint was dismissed by the Kimberley High Court. Wasserman had earlier told the court he retrieved shredded documents on Breytenbach’s official laptop which related to a business interest involving Breytenbach and attorney Andre Bezuidenhout, who acted as the defence in cases she had handled.
Wassermann said there had been allegations against Breytenbach for failing to act impartially in matters. Roux accused Wasserman of selectively giving facts after he conceded that Breytenbach disclosed her business interests.
She was suspended from the NPA in 2012 and claimed this was an act to prevent her from prosecuting Mdluli. She challenged her suspension in the Labour Court and lost. On May 27, 2013, she was cleared of all 15 disciplinary charges the NPA had brought against her.
These included failing to act impartially while investigating the mining rights.
Magistrate Brian Nemavhidi rolled the matter over to Friday.
Pretoria News