Parliament - Justice Minister Michael Masutha on Wednesday said he was convinced South Africa's prosecutions boss Shaun Abrahams remains the right man for the job.
"I must state that the competence, the skill, the experience that he exudes in his work to the extent that my interaction with him [Abrahams]... gives me confidence that he is the right man for the job," Masutha said while answering questions in the National Assembly.
Masutha was asked whether he was part of negotiations leading to the early termination of the contract of Mxolisi Nxasana, Abrahams' predecessor.
He said while former president Jacob Zuma had informed him he was in discussion with Nxasana, he was not part of negotiations.
"I signed a settlement agreement reached between the President and Mr Nxasana," Masutha said.
A high court last year found Nxasana's contract termination, along with a golden handshake of R17.3 million, was unlawful and the subsequent appointment of Abrahams was therefore invalid.
Abrahams and the National Prosecutions Authority (NPA) have appealed in the Constitutional Court which last month reserved judgment in the matter.
Masutha also rejected notions from the opposition that Nxasana was made to step aside to protect Zuma against prosecution.
"At no stage in any of my consultations either with Mr Nxasana of with the former president did the issue...on the possible prosecution of the former president ever arise."
Earlier on Wednesday, Abrahams was in Parliament to explain why the arrests of people associated to the Gupta family, close friends of Zuma and his family, were delayed.
Abrahams denied wrongdoing, saying that information for the prosecution was outstanding when the docket related to the Free State government dairy farm project, from which the Guptas are alleged to have siphoned money out of South Africa, was first handed to the NPA.