Johannesburg - Prosecutions boss Mxolisi Nxasana is to stay in the job while an inquiry into his fitness for office completes its work.
Presidency spokesman Mac Maharaj said on Friday there was “no issue of suspension” despite an announcement late on Thursday that the inquiry had been established and its members appointed.
President Jacob Zuma initially warned Nxasana of his intention to suspend him in July last year, pending the outcome of an inquiry into his fitness for office, after it emerged he had not been granted a security clearance because of previous convictions and an arrest on criminal charges.
Zuma is now proceeding with the inquiry but seems to have had a change of heart about the need to suspend Nxasana.
The terms of reference for the inquiry, released on Friday, cite as matters to be probed: two convictions for assault; complaints of professional misconduct laid against Nxasana with the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society; criminal charges he had faced for acts of violence; his arrest and detention on criminal charges; issuing, making or sanctioning media statements that undermined his office and the NPA or brought it into disrepute; and any other matter relevant to these.
The inquiry should determine whether these “facts and circumstances” were “consonant with the conscientiousness and integrity” of a national director of public prosecutions.
Zuma has given the inquiry six weeks to complete its work and make findings, report on and make recommendations relating to the issues cited in the terms of reference, to be submitted within two weeks of finishing.
Nxasana vowed last year to fight attempts to remove him.
He filed an urgent application in the High Court in Pretoria in September seeking an interdict to stop Zuma from suspending him.
In representations included in the application he said the allegations against him did not constitute serious misconduct.
The assault convictions hailed from his teens, 30 years ago, and he intended applying to have them expunged, Nxasana said.
They were unrelated to the NPA or his responsibilities as its head.
He had also disclosed an assault conviction when he applied for admission as an attorney and the court had found him a fit and proper person to be admitted.
“There cannot be any reason why two very old criminal convictions for minor offences, that will be expunged, should render me unfit…,” he said.
He believed the one arrest in question related to a murder charge, of which he had been acquitted on grounds of self defence, while the other related to an arrest for inconsiderate driving in which the charges were dropped.
He confirmed he had made statements to the media accusing two of his deputies, Nomgcobo Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi, of plotting against him but said he had evidence of this.
Maharaj said on Friday the inquiry would proceed while Nxasana was at work. Zuma appointed Nazeer Cassim SC to chair the inquiry.
He has been an acting judge in the high court and labour court and was chairman of the Johannesburg Society of Advocates in 2000.
Lindi Nkosi-Thomas, also an advocate of the Joburg Bar and a former director of SAA who acted for then-police minister Nathi Mthethwa at the Marikana commission of inquiry, and Durban advocate Sthembiso Mdladla, initially appointed as an evidence leader for the Seriti Commission of inquiry into the arms deal but later removed, make up the rest of the inquiry into Nxasana.
Pretoria News Weekend