Cyril set to replace Shaun today
Constitutional Court rules Shaun’s appointment invalid
President Cyril Ramaphosa will today appoint an acting head of theNational Prosecuting Authority (NPA) after the Constitutional Court ruled that Shaun Abrahams’s appointment by former president Jacob Zuma was invalid, the Presidency has confirmed.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority Act, the president has to appoint one of the four deputies as acting national director of public prosecutions. Current deputies are Willie Hofmeyr, Nomvula Mokhatla, Nomcgobo Jiba and Silas Ramaite.
The apex court has given Ramaphosa 90 days to appoint a new national director of public prosecutions.
Speculation is rife over who will succeed Abrahams permanently.
A highly-placed source said former national director of prosecutions Vusi Pikoli, Western Cape director of prosecutions Rodney de Kock and former auditor-general Terence Nombembe are under consideration.
However, the national director has to be an advocate, which counts out Nombembe, who is a chartered accountant. Nombembe declined to comment on whether he had been approached.
Ramaphosa was elected to lead the ANC in December on an anti-corruption ticket, central to which was ensuring that state institutions charged with pursuing politically loaded cases could act without fear or favour.
His appointment of a NPA head is critical to fulfilling those promises, which were also made to the nation in his inaugural address at the opening of parliament in February.
With the appointment of a new national director, the clean-up at the NPAcan begin under the new leadership.
The NPA is crucial for the functioning of the criminal justice system and needs to win back public confidence with politically loaded cases pending, such as those linked to state capture and corruption.
Lawson Naidoo, the executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, which together with Freedom Under Law and Corruption Watch drove the litigation, said Ramaphosamust appoint a director as “a matter of urgency”.
“The work of cleaning up the NPA can’t wait a day longer,” Naidoo said.
“This judgment emphasised the paralysing instability in the National Prosecuting Au- thority, and the process of cleaning up has got to begin.
“The president needs to institute the inquiries into the fitness of Jiba and Mrwebi to hold office, so that whoever comes in as the new national director doesn’t have that mess to deal with,” he said.
Jiba and Mrwebi, the head of the specialised commercial crimes unit, provided reasons to Ramaphosa on Friday as to why they should not be suspended pending an inquiry into their fitness to hold office.
Khusela Diko, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, said yesterday that the Presidency was studying the judgment and was cognisant of the order directing the president to appoint a national director within 90 days. “In studying this judgment, the Presidency is guided by the undertaking given by President Cyril Ramaphosa in the February 2018 State of the Nation Address that SA’s law enforcement institutions would be strengthened and shielded from external interference or manipulation,” Diko said.
Delivering the judgment Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, dismissed Abrahams appeal and confirmed that he had been “a beneficiary of an abuse of power by Zuma” who wanted to remove Nxasana by any means necessary.
In 2014, Zuma had announced an inquiry to determine whether Nxasana was fit and proper to hold office prior to them reaching a settlement.
The apex court found that “it was difficult to comprehend why he [Zuma] would have settled on so huge an amount [R17.3-million] and from public coffers... an inference is inescapable that hewas effectively buying Mr Nxasana out of office,” Madlanga said. – Additional reporting by Isaac Mahlangu
The cleaning up of the NPA can’t wait a day longer...