This is not a "smear campaign", this is fact Minister Radebe
The DA's fears that Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Advocate Nomgcobo Jiba might be appointed to this position on a permanent basis, were not assuaged by Justice Minister Jeff Radebe's uncharacteristically clumsy answers to my questions in the National Assembly on what will happen in the event that the Constitutional Court should uphold the Supreme Court of Appeal's judgement against the appointment of Adv Menzi Simelane.
Asked what his advice to the President would be if President Zuma wanted to appoint Jiba, Radebe complained that he was not a sangoma who could predict who the President would want to appoint.
His advice to President Zuma at the time of the Simelane appointment (which is reflected in the case records and in the Supreme Court of Appeal judgement) fell hopelessly short of the proper enquiry which the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) said was necessary to determine whether a candidate was fit and proper. The SCA ruled that the question on whether a candidate has the statutorily required qualities to render them fit and proper rests not on the President's subjective views, but on jurisdictional facts, the objective existence of which can be shown.
If the Constitutional Court upholds the SCA judgement, and if the President appoints Adv Jiba, then objective facts such as her threat to withdraw the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) from the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) would become relevant. That threat was the subject of my questioning yesterday, and it clearly hit a raw nerve.
My information (from trusted sources) is that Adv Jiba, upon hearing about the nomination of Adv Gerrie Nel for a Special Achievement Award for his successful prosecution of Mr Jackie Selebi firstly said that the NPA should have been consulted, and then threatened to withdraw the NPA from the IAP.