Johannesburg - A senior advocate in the office of the NPA has vowed to sue his boss, Mxolisi Nxasana, after criminal charges of defeating the ends of justice were withdrawn against him.
The National Prosecuting Authority’s commercial crime head, Lawrence Mrwebi, has accused Nxasana of harassing and tormenting him.
This comes after the High Court in Pretoria withdrew charges against Mrwebi last month.
Last year, the NPA laid charges of defeating the ends of justice and contravening section 32 of the NPA Act against Mrwebi after he gave former prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach an instruction to provisionally withdraw fraud and corruption charges against suspended crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli.
Mrwebi said: “I wrote a report to Nxasana, informing him officially there was no case against Mdluli. Instead he put a team of other prosecutors to work on the case, but I can tell you, they won’t find anything.
“He then went ahead and opened a case against me. When I withdrew the charges against Mdluli, I was doing my job. I’m going to sue Nxasana,” Mrwebi said.
Last month, the NPA reinstated charges against Mdluli, saying it was complying with a court order.
Lobby group Freedom Under Law brought the case before the high court after the NPA dropped charges against Mdluli.
Pretoria High Court Judge John Murphy ordered that charges, including that of murder and corruption, against the former intelligence boss be reinstated.
The Supreme Court of Appeal also confirmed Judge Murphy's judgment.
The court criticised Mrwebi for not disclosing “obviously relevant documents” to the litigants that it found he was obliged to disclose. It also found that his account of how he withdrew the charges against Mdluli was “inconsistent with the objective facts”.
On Monday, NPA spokesman Velekhaya Mgobhozi insisted that the NPA still had a case against Mrwebi and denied that Nxasana was harassing Mrwebi.
Mgobhozi said the Mdluli matter was withdrawn “merely because the court refused to allow a postponement as the case was set down for trial”.
Mrwebi also faced a second charge of defeating the ends of justice.
The Star