Breytenbach charges nothing but a witch-hunt to distract from Jiba review

14 February 2016

The DA notes the charges that have been trumped up against the DA’s Shadow Minister of Justice, Adv Glynnis Breytenbach MP. We further note the statement from the ANC Chief Whip, Stone Sizane’s office.

This while unsurprising is a desperate abuse of the criminal justice system to create a diversion from the real issues that have plagued our prosecutorial integrity. The ANC in chorus with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is once again using this as a cheap political gimmick to mask its own record of dealing with its own questionable characters.

If the ANC is serious about Adv Breytenbach it must walk the talk and take swift action against those in their own ranks who have their own transgressions being probed by various investigative bodies. Specifically, Bongi Mkongi, Truman Prince, Mohapi Mohapi and Mandla Mandela.

It is indeed instructive that the charges against Adv Breytenbach have been laid at the same time as our court action against Ms Jiba. The DA is in the midst of a review application requesting the Western Cape High Court to set aside President Zuma’s decision not to suspend and order a Commission of Inquiry into the sitting deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), Nomgcobo Jiba, despite many calls to do so by the former NDPP, Mxolisi Nxasana.

The charges for which Adv Breytenbach stands accused were thoroughly traversed in disciplinary hearings against her and all resulted in her acquittal.

Now, years after the fact, the NPA wants to revive matters that have already been dealt with. This is on the back of President’s Zuma’s capitulation in the Nkandla Constitutional Court matter on Tuesday this week and the al-Bashir saga before the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on friday.

For too long the President and the ANC in government have been knocking on the doors of the Judiciary in an effort to bend the courts to their undue political whims to no avail from the Judiciary.

The ANC and the NPA know that the DA has a strong case against Jiba and knowing the Judiciary’s commitment to the Rule of Law will be unfettered by undue political considerations; the NPA is panicking in a thinly veiled move to distract the nation from an NPA boss who is wholly unfit to hold office.

The DA regards the charges against Adv Breytenbach as trumped up. We also regard her as innocent until proven guilty and stand by her.

Statement issued by James Selfe MP, Chairperson of the DA’s Federal Executive, 14 February 2016