Johannesburg - Advocate Nomgcobo Jiba says she plans to approach the High Court to review the Mokgoro Inquiry’s report which recommended that she be fired as deputy national director of public prosecutions.
“The inquiry’s findings have been most unfair to me. I do not accept them as a final statement on my life,” Jiba said.
Jiba issued a statement on Friday and described the recommendations contained in the Mokgoro Inquiry report as unfair and filled with elementary legal errors.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that on Thursday he had issued Jiba and special director of public prosecutions Lawrence Mrwebi with letters outlining his decision to remove them from office as of April 26.
Ramaphosa’s decision followed recommendations from retired Constitutional Court Justice Yvonne Mokgoro whose report provided scathing findings against Jiba and Mrwebi and recommended that they be axed following a six-week inquiry.
The president’s letters to Mrwebi and Jiba highlighted his reasoning on his decision based on a number of factors stated in the report. He said they lied to him on various aspects which the commission confirmed.
Jiba had made recommendations to Ramaphosa after he received the report and pleaded that he must not fire her as she had a family to take care of. She pleaded that Ramaphosa should instead demote her to a public prosecutor position instead, but the president as refused this decision and said the findings were to grave.
In her statement, Jiba says there were various elements of the Mokgoro Inquiry report which were unfair. She is confident that her review application will be able to demonstrate the errors.
Jiba said the inquiry acted unfairly in finding that she had not ensured the NPA’s independence when she charged former KZN Hawks head Johan Booysen with racketeering charges related to the alleged “Cato Manor death squad”.
She said the inquiry failed to take into account that the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) had found there was nothing wrong with her decision to charge Booysen. Jiba said the inquiry is not a court of law and could not issue a recommendation that went against a finding of the SCA.
“The Inquiry failed to grasp basic constitutional principles governing its work- more particularly that it is not entitled to overturn the findings of a Court. The President also failed to respect the order of the SCA in so far as he accepted that I acted incompetently when I authorised the charging of Booysen,” she said.
Jiba said Ramaphosa and the inquiry erred when it said she had failed to exercise discretion in relation to the former crime intelligence boss Richard Mduli and the spy tapes matter. Mogkoro said Jiba had not acted with discretion when she decided to drop the charges against Mdlui.
“The Enquiry and the President are wrong to impugn my conduct in relation to the cases of Mdluli and the Spy Tapes. A dispassionate and rigorous review of the evidence will disclose that the SCA was correct when it found (as it did) nothing wrong with my involvement in those matters: the prosecutorial decision involving Mdluli was taken before I was appointed as ANDPP and the glaring evidence on the spy papes, as in all cases, is the affidavit of Advocate Paul Kennedy SC for the NPA which made it clear what my role was in that case.
“It is wrong to hold me incompetent for the work of the NPA which was done under the hand of counsel, in many instances Senior Counsel,” she said.
Ramaphosa will have to forward to Parliament the documentation explaining his reasoning for firing the two with 14 days. Parliament will have 30 days to consider Ramaphosa's decision and pass a resolution on whether to uphold the recommendation.
Jiba said she hopes Parliament will be able to see that Ramaphosa and Mokgoro had erred.