Jiba: DA to seek leave to appeal Western Cape High Court judgement

23 May 2016

The Western Cape High Court today handed down judgement in the DA’s application to have the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Adv Nomgcobo Jiba, suspended pending a Commission of inquiry into her fitness to hold office.

The Court dismissed the DA’s application in this regard and the DA will accordingly apply for leave to appeal this decision as we contend that Adv Jiba ought to be the subject of a Commission of inquiry and be suspended pending its completion for her gross misconduct as deputy DNDPP and now head of the National Prosecuting Services (NPS).

Given the seriousness of the matters contained in this application the DA feels that it important that these matters be ventilated further in a different court that might come to a different determination. 

The DA followed this course of action because, similarly to the Simelane matter, the President, when he appointed her, could not possibly have applied his mind rationally to the appointment. The controversies surrounding her at the time were sufficient to disqualify her.  Her subsequent odious behaviour, both as acting NDPP and as DNDPP now certainly make her unfit hold any office in the NPA.

The continuation in office of Adv Jiba, and her effective promotion to the Head of the NPS, effectively the second most powerful position in the NPA, demonstrates further that she retains power despite her obvious flaws. 

This can only be so because she has the favour of the President, and that Abrahams is nothing but a pawn.  In doing so Adv Abrahams has inexplicably placed her in control of all prosecutions in the country. Effectively, she will make final decisions on whether to institute contentious prosecutions, or decline to prosecute in contentious matters such as the Zuma Corruption Charges (Spy Tapes).

This comes after the DA, in March, argued that the President’s failure to suspend Adv Jiba was unlawful and tainted by ulterior motives and bias. Accordingly the DA asked the Court to do what the President would not and suspend Adv Jiba.

As argued in the DA’s heads of argument, Adv Jiba managed to incur the criticism of twelve judges, on four benches, in three different matters during her short stint as Acting NDPP. She stands accused of lying to the court, failing to comply with court orders, ignoring deadlines, failing to exercise an independent mind, and “shielding irrational and illegal actions from judicial scrutiny”. 

The General Council of the Bar (GCB) is concurrently but in a separate application seeking her disbarment as an advocate which is likely to be heard in the near future.

It was in light of these accusations that the NPA requested the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Mike Masutha, and the President to suspend Adv Jiba. An independent commission under former Constitutional Court Justice, Zak Yacoob, found that Adv Jiba had been “rightly criticized” by the courts and that her conduct had caused great public concern that the NPA would not carry out their functions free of fear or favour.

Despite all of this, however, President Zuma failed to suspend her, ignoring the requests of the then sitting NDPP, Mxolisi Nxasana, and numerous stakeholders across civil society. Instead Adv Jiba was promoted and those who sought her suspension were purged from the NPA.

It is telling of course that the three cases in which Adv Jiba acted dishonestly concerned serious charges against the President and senior members of the SAPS aligned to the President. The cases were all extremely politically sensitive. They are exactly the types of cases in which an honest, independent DNDPP is absolutely vital, and where the failure to exhibit those qualities undermines the integrity and the independence of the NPA as a whole. Yet in all three cases, Adv Jiba demonstrated that she lacked the basic integrity, independence, diligence and conscientiousness to perform the functions of the NDPP, or a DNDPP.

It is expressly for these reasons that Adv Jiba cannot be a senior office bearer while the NPA is seized with handling the Zuma Corruption Case. This is particularly while we have an NDPP who has proven in his short tenure to be a Zuma acolyte puppeteered by Adv Jiba who sole preoccupation is to protect President Zuma no matter the consequences for the Rule of Law, due process and the Constitution.

The DA will not allow the President’s inaction to topple the rule of law or the integrity of the South African criminal justice system. 

Issued by Glynnis Breytenbach, DA Shadow Minister of Justice, 23 May 2016