Pretoria - The intervention of national police commissioner Riah Phiyega in the case against deputy prosecutions boss Nomgcobo Jiba is worrying, the National Prosecuting Authority said on Friday.
“I won't want to say that I believe that she is protected. I want to say a perception is created, and it's unavoidable, that she is being protected at all costs,” National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Mxolisi Nxasana told journalists in Pretoria.
“Because of my position, I wouldn't venture into saying what she is doing is defeating the ends of justice. All I am saying is that I am concerned with her involvement in the matter. I asked her, and I am asking you, does she really do this in all other matters where ordinary suspects are involved?”
Nxasana said he received a call from Phiyega after senior police officers delivered a summons against Jiba. Since Jiba was not at her workplace, Nxasana was handed the summons, which he delivered to Jiba.
He said Jiba, the deputy NDPP, refused to accept the summons. It required her to appear on criminal charges in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on April 21.
“When I received a call from the national police commissioner, to be honest I still don't know what was the reason for her call. She said the summons was not issued properly,” Nxasana said.
“I'm still battling to understand what it is that she wanted from me. I am talking with confidence as jurist and as a person who received the summons.”
On Wednesday, Phiyega's spokesman Lt-Gen Solomon Makgale denied they were looking for Jiba, and said no summons had been issued.
“It is worth mentioning that the issuing of the summons was not done in consultation with the (SA Police Service's) investigating officer,” he said at the time.
The charges against Jiba relate to her failed bid to lay murder and racketeering charges against suspended KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Maj-Gen Johan Booysen.
In February last year, Durban High Court Judge Trevor Gorven set aside the charges, saying they did not meet even minimum standards.
Sapa