Durban - Desperate to save the credibility of the National Prosecuting Authority, former prosecutions boss Mxolisi Nxasana hand-delivered a letter to President Jacob Zuma in which he implored him to take action against three top NPA officials, he says.
But Zuma apparently ignored the letter delivered last September, and deputy national director of public prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba, head of the specialised commercial crimes unit Lawrence Mrwebi, and North Gauteng director of public prosecutions Sibongile Mzinyathi remain in their jobs.
Nxasana, left the NPA earlier this year agreeing to an exit package – estimated at R17 million – with Zuma.
He departed after the Presidency had set up an inquiry to investigate his fitness to hold office because of his past brushes with the law.
But in newspaper reports Nxasana alleged that there was a smear campaign to get rid of him, in which he alleged Mrwebi and Jiba were involved.
In the NPA’s annual report which was recently tabled in Parliament, Nxasana, for the first time, has revealed that despite the steps he took to get Zuma and Justice Minister Michael Masutha to deal with the advocates and his concerns, nothing was done.
The saga began after a Pretoria High Court judge and the Supreme Court of Appeal made adverse findings about the advocates’ credibility related to their conduct in the decision to drop charges against suspended crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli.
Jiba was also criticised in the Durban High Court for her role in the so-called spy tapes case and the failed attempt to prosecute the head of the Hawks in KwaZulu-Natal, Johan Booysen.
After the court judgments were made last year, the NPA approached a senior advocate, who is not named, to provide legal opinion on whether any action should be taken against the three.
The advocate recommended in July last year that Zuma suspend the three pending an inquiry into their fitness to hold office and that perjury charges be opened with the police.
The report states that these findings were sent to Masutha so he could bring them to the attention of Zuma, but when this did not happen, Nxasana took it upon himself to approach Zuma last September.
“The opinion was held that failure to bring these serious matters to the attention of the president is causing a credibility crisis within the NPA and that it was appropriate to urgently bring stability within the NPA.
“It was of utmost importance that the matter should be communicated to the president.”
He said a separate committee, headed by retired Judge Zak Yacoob, which was also tasked with looking into officials’ misconduct, also made findings against the three, and this report was also sent to the minister.
He said despite all the requests for intervention, “no feedback” had been received from the minister and president.
“It is important for the minister and the president to fulfil their constitutional mandate and to act as a matter of urgency,” the report states.
The NPA also recommended that the General Bar Council bring a court application to have the three struck off the roll of advocates.
Perjury charges have been opened against the three related to the handling of the Mdluli case and a separate perjury charge was opened against Jiba in respect of Booysen.
Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos said on Tuesday that there was no question that the advocates should have been suspended.
“In terms of the NPA Act and the constitution, the president can remove or suspend officials if they are found to no longer be fit and proper people to be in the leadership of the NPA. There is a cloud of suspicion.”
The NPA, the Justice Ministry and the Presidency did not respond to requests for comment.
The Mercury