Johannesburg - Several top officials in the criminal justice system have either been suspended or are facing criminal investigations.
The former head of the Hawks Anwa Dramat resigned under suspicious circumstances last week.
Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega, who announced Dramat’s resignation, is herself said to be under investigation.
With revelations that head of independent police watchdog Ipid Robert McBride and NPA head Mxolisi Nxasana could also face criminal charges, we look at key players in recent dramatic events that have plagued South Africa’s criminal justice system.
NPA Specialised commercial crimes unit head
Lawrence Mrwebi
The National Prosecuting Authority laid charges of defeating the ends of justice and contravening Section 32 of the NPA Act against Lawrence Mrwebi after he gave former prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach an instruction to provisionally withdraw charges against crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli.
The other charge – defeating the ends of justice – relates to Mrwebi’s decision to withdraw fraud and corruption charges against Mdluli. However, the charges were thrown out of court last month.
In the second charge of defeating the ends of justice, Mrwebi is accused of trying to interfere in or even block an investigation into his friend and colleague Terrence Joubert, who is the head of the NPA’s security and risk management in KwaZulu-Natal.
Joubert was implicated in the irregular awarding of a R20 million security tender within the authority several years ago, but the charges were later withdrawn.
Head of the National Prosecuting Authority
Mxolisi Nxasana
Mxolisi Nxasana was asked by the then justice minister Jeff Radebe to resign after failing a security clearance after he failed to disclose a murder charge. He then turned on his deputy, Nomgcobo Jiba, who had been acting in the position. It is alleged that she and Mrwebi had been promised the job. Nxasana accused them of engineering his downfall by abusing NPA resources to “dig out dirt” about him.
The rift with Jiba was also caused by the fact that Nxasana angered her when he withdrew an appeal lodged on her behalf in the judgment around KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Major-General Johan Booysen.
Charges against Booysen were subsequently dropped and he is now suing the state for R10.5 million in damages following his arrest and prosecution together with members of the so-called Cato Manor organised crime unit, accused of operating “death squads”.
Nxasana is still heading the NPA as only President Jacob Zuma has the authority to fire him.
Deputy head of the National Prosecuting Authority
Nomgcobo Jiba
Nomgcobo Jiba is expected to appear in court on allegations arising from her reckless handling of the racketeering charges brought against suspended KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Major General Johan Booysen.
KwaZulu-Natal High Court judge Trevor Gorven had set aside charges against Booysen, saying they did not meet even minimum standards.
Last month Nxasana said senior police officers delivered a summons against Jiba that required her to appear on criminal charges in the Pretoria Regional Court on charges of fraud and perjury.
The General Council of the Bar of SA wants Jiba to be struck off the roll or suspended from working as an advocate.
The council also wants Mrwebi and North Gauteng director of public prosecutions Sibongile Mzinyathi struck off the roll or suspended.
Bar council head advocate Jeremy Muller accused Jiba, Mrwebi and Mzinyathi of not being “fit and proper to continue practising as advocates” and said their conduct had been unethical and sloppy.
Muller argued that the three had flouted the law governing the conduct of admitted advocates. In the matter brought by Freedom Under Law, Judge John Murphy ruled Mrwebi’s decision to withdraw fraud and corruption charges against the suspended head of SAPS crime intelligence, Richard Mdluli, was “illegal, irrational, based on irrelevant considerations and material errors of law, and ultimately so unreasonable that no reasonable prosecutor could have taken it”. Murphy ruled that Mrwebi’s subsequent explanation that he had only provisionally withdrawn charges against Mdluli was “probably invented”.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) confirmed this directly contradicted what Mzinyathi and Mrwebi had said under oath in the disciplinary hearing of former prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach. Jiba had claimed under oath that the decision to withdraw charges was never brought to her attention, but the SCA ruled that the matter was brought to her attention by Breytenbach in a 200-page memorandum.
In a separate matter, Durban High Court Judge Trevor Gorven criticised Jiba’s decision to prosecute Booysen, who was charged with racketeering and murder in connection with the Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit.
Jiba, who was then acting national director of public prosecutions (NDPP), came under fire when the court found she had lied about properly applying her mind to sworn statements before deciding to prosecute Booysen.
The SCA was also scathing of Jiba in the case of “spy tapes” brought by the DA against President Jacob Zuma. Judge Mahomed Navsa ruled that Jiba’s handling of the litigation was “not worthy of the office of the NDPP”.
Director of public prosecutions: North Gauteng High Court
Sibongile Mzinyathi
Last month, the General Bar Council brought an application to strike Mzinyathi off the roll of advocates after criticism was levelled against him, Jiba and Mrwebi for withdrawing corruption charges against Mdluli.
Head of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate
Robert McBride
Robert McBride was suspended and he could also be the subject of a criminal investigation.
He is accused of deliberately removing evidence that could implicate Hawks head Anwa Dramat and Gauteng Hawks head Shadrack Sibiya in the rendition saga.
McBride approached the North Gauteng High Court and accused his boss, Police Minister Nathi Nhleko, of ulterior motives. His lawyer told the court that it was not clear which provision the minister was relying on to suspend him.
He asked the court to declare the minister’s decision unlawful and invalid. The court found that the matter wasn’t urgent but McBride remains suspended.
Former police crime intelligence boss
Richard Mdluli
Richard Mdluli led the crime intelligence unit from 2009-2012, when he was deployed to the office of deputy national commissioner by then police minister Nathi Mthethwa. In 2012, he was implicated in the murder of Oupa Ramogibe, the husband of his former lover, but an inquest cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Mdluli had fraud and corruption charges reinstated against him last year after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) upheld a high court ruling against the withdrawal of fraud and corruption charges he faced previously. This was after Freedom Under Law sought an order in the High Court in Pretoria to set aside the ruling.
Mdluli was suspended amid allegations of fraud and corruption, as well as charges relating to the murder of Ramogibe in February 1999.
The fraud and corruption charges were withdrawn on December 14, 2011, and in March 2012, Mdluli was reinstated as head of crime intelligence.
A month later, the National Prosecuting Authority provisionally withdrew the murder charges, pending an inquest into the matter.
In May that year, then police minister Nathi Mthethwa announced Mdluli would be transferred from crime intelligence to the office of the deputy national police commissioner for operations. Later, he was suspended for a second time when allegations emerged from the inquest into Ramogibe’s murder.
In November 2012, the inquest cleared him of any involvement in the murder. But charges of fraud and corruption still stand.
Former Hawks boss
Anwa Dramat
Anwa Dramat was suspended by Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko pending a probe into his alleged involvement in facilitating the illegal rendition of Zimbabweans in November 2010.
Dramat was told by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) last year that it was investigating criminal charges against him relating to the allegations. It was reported that numerous rendition survivors had stepped forward and accused Dramat of being involved in the apprehension and deportation of Zimbabwe’s most wanted criminals.
Ipid spokesman Moses Dlamini said the allegations were investigated and Ipid handed over its report to the NPA earlier this year. It was still waiting for its findings.Then Dramat went to court, where he challenged his suspension. The court found in his favour but he was put on extended leave. Months since he failed to go back to his position, Dramat has now resigned. Major-General Berning Ntlemeza is still acting head of the Hawks.
National Police Commissioner
Riah Phiyega
Riah Phiyega’s future in the police force is in the balance following allegations that she could be hauled before a disciplinary commission after a number of allegations against her were investigated.
Previously the NPA recomm-ended that Phiyega face an internal disciplinary hearing for her alleged interference in a criminal investigation that led to the recent arrest of Western Cape Police Commissioner Arno Lamoer on fraud, racketeering and corruption charges.
In 2013, Phiyega was accused of alerting Lamoer about the Hawks and Crime Intelligence probe into his suspected criminal activities.
Police Minister Nathi Nhleko established the Reference Group in October last year and its terms of reference were to investigate all appointments, suspensions, disciplinary and criminal proceedings involving senior police management.
It also included in its mandate investigation allegations that Phiyega alerted Lamoer about the probe. – Additional reporting by Zingisa Mkhuma
The Sunday Independent